Because of it's great flamibility and it's ability to be easily ignited under wet and rainy conditions and even after being submerged under water for hours even days.
fatwood is a great resource and being able to recognise it in the bush can make things a lot easier on wet days. If you get enough of it going it will continue to burn in the lighter rains. I went up onto the Suckreek Mountain section of Waldens Ridge to do some hiking and photography and some peace and quiet. While I was out hiking I collected some fatwood stumps, I gathered three different ones to show how the look of it can vary in the wilderness. Fatwood as I know it comes from pine tree stumps, where the sap has settled in the lower sections and maybe gone through some type of fermentation process. You will see if you look at the forest floor and the other trees around, that while these are pine tree stumps I am collecting, I am in a forest that is predominantly hardwood with only about five to ten percent pine trees (getting fewer by the year thanks to the southern pine beetle.
This is the first stump I found and used to start my fire that night. The part sticking up that is circled in green is what I am pulling out of the ground.
and this is what it looks like when you pull it out.
If it is a fatwood stump you will know because it will be much heavier and less fragile than youd think for such a rotten piece of wood. Beat it on a rock, a fallen log or another tree to remove the unneeded rot, dirt, and debris it will be easier to carry back to camp this way.
When you cut into it you will see rich red and gold colors and it will be very glossy and shiny.
I find it best to slice it into thin sheets (here you can see how glossy it is) ..
then slice the sheets into smaller slivers. Thin edges are best for lighting.
This lit easily using a swedish fire steel
Here are two more examples of what fatwood can look like when you find it in the woods they are in the green rectangles.
and this is it from a little more distance
this one shows what gives it away, how the outer tree has deteriorated away and left the symmetrical lines of the grain of the limbs showing.
and these show that stump out of the ground, you can see how much was still underground in this one.
and this one shows both stumps and how much weight was knocked off of the big one when beating it against a log
Here is another example, and yet again the limited deterioration gives it away, and you can see the symmetrical lines of the grain on the limbs.
However in this one the fat part of the wood isnt so far under the ground.
This is probably a younger tree and may not be as rich, but that is not always the case because some of the richest stumps Ive ever found were just about a foot tall above the ground and looked just like a shorter version of this but there was more underground so we shall see.
Today I processed part of the fatwood I collected last weekend, I think I did pretty good.
In these shots you see the rot and debris that is on it when you pull it out of the ground and my method for removing it is to throw it against a hard object like a big rock, a log, or just the ground because all it will do if you don't get rid of it is fly up and hit you in the face as you chop it and also dull your hatchet.
Then you take a hatchet or axe and start splitting it like kindling.
and you will see the rich glossy colors inside and smell that terpintine smell
You can easily light it with a flame, and it will put off a lot of black smoke you do not want to inhale.
And actually the one piece I expected to have the least fatwood had a lot and it was the richest of all, perhaps a much larger tree than I originally thought. The hint is this deep almost ruby red section peeking out at me after beating the rotten part off of it.
there is even a good bit of it in the upper section, not as dark but smells just as strong.
And this is what I ended up with
fatwood is a great resource and being able to recognise it in the bush can make things a lot easier on wet days. If you get enough of it going it will continue to burn in the lighter rains. I went up onto the Suckreek Mountain section of Waldens Ridge to do some hiking and photography and some peace and quiet. While I was out hiking I collected some fatwood stumps, I gathered three different ones to show how the look of it can vary in the wilderness. Fatwood as I know it comes from pine tree stumps, where the sap has settled in the lower sections and maybe gone through some type of fermentation process. You will see if you look at the forest floor and the other trees around, that while these are pine tree stumps I am collecting, I am in a forest that is predominantly hardwood with only about five to ten percent pine trees (getting fewer by the year thanks to the southern pine beetle.
This is the first stump I found and used to start my fire that night. The part sticking up that is circled in green is what I am pulling out of the ground.
and this is what it looks like when you pull it out.
If it is a fatwood stump you will know because it will be much heavier and less fragile than youd think for such a rotten piece of wood. Beat it on a rock, a fallen log or another tree to remove the unneeded rot, dirt, and debris it will be easier to carry back to camp this way.
When you cut into it you will see rich red and gold colors and it will be very glossy and shiny.
I find it best to slice it into thin sheets (here you can see how glossy it is) ..
then slice the sheets into smaller slivers. Thin edges are best for lighting.
This lit easily using a swedish fire steel
Here are two more examples of what fatwood can look like when you find it in the woods they are in the green rectangles.
and this is it from a little more distance
this one shows what gives it away, how the outer tree has deteriorated away and left the symmetrical lines of the grain of the limbs showing.
and these show that stump out of the ground, you can see how much was still underground in this one.
and this one shows both stumps and how much weight was knocked off of the big one when beating it against a log
Here is another example, and yet again the limited deterioration gives it away, and you can see the symmetrical lines of the grain on the limbs.
However in this one the fat part of the wood isnt so far under the ground.
This is probably a younger tree and may not be as rich, but that is not always the case because some of the richest stumps Ive ever found were just about a foot tall above the ground and looked just like a shorter version of this but there was more underground so we shall see.
Today I processed part of the fatwood I collected last weekend, I think I did pretty good.
In these shots you see the rot and debris that is on it when you pull it out of the ground and my method for removing it is to throw it against a hard object like a big rock, a log, or just the ground because all it will do if you don't get rid of it is fly up and hit you in the face as you chop it and also dull your hatchet.
Then you take a hatchet or axe and start splitting it like kindling.
and you will see the rich glossy colors inside and smell that terpintine smell
You can easily light it with a flame, and it will put off a lot of black smoke you do not want to inhale.
And actually the one piece I expected to have the least fatwood had a lot and it was the richest of all, perhaps a much larger tree than I originally thought. The hint is this deep almost ruby red section peeking out at me after beating the rotten part off of it.
there is even a good bit of it in the upper section, not as dark but smells just as strong.
And this is what I ended up with
Thats the way we light fires too, using split sap heavy wood from the pine trees here. Its so reliable for firelighting.
