Finding Fatwood in the bush

[Toddy]

It's a really good thread Mistwalker

The topic came up a long while ago and while we were discussing different trees that might make 'fat', someone (I think it was Xylaria) mentioned that cherry weeps resin.
I know that mine don't despite being pruned every year, but it turns out that it needs some sort of fungal infection to encourage it to produce that resinous stuff........which does burn incidentally ............I wonder if this is in someway involved in the production of fat pine.
We get it so very, very rarely here, but most of our pines are plantation, and very recent growth in the scheme of things


cheers,
Toddy

 

[Mistwalker]

It's a really good thread Mistwalker

The topic came up a long while ago and while we were discussing different trees that might make 'fat', someone (I think it was Xylaria) mentioned that cherry weeps resin.
I know that mine don't despite being pruned every year, but it turns out that it needs some sort of fungal infection to encourage it to produce that resinous stuff........which does burn incidentally ............I wonder if this is in someway involved in the production of fat pine.
We get it so very, very rarely here, but most of our pines are plantation, and very recent growth in the scheme of things


cheers,
Toddy

I have heard of Cherry trees producing tinder fungus, the bark is similar to that of Birch. I didn't know about the sap....maybe that is what I saw on some of the Cherry Trees on the mountain...it looked sort of like black scabs on sores. I took pictures of it I'll try to upload them.

I don't think fungus has anything to do with fatwood, a lot of the worlds fat wood comes from the stumps of Pine trees that have been harvested for lumber. Pine produce a lot of resin naturaly...I think that once the moisture dries out of it over time what is left is just very flamable.

 

[Toddy]

Maybe that's it then..........tree stumps here are sodden wet, they don't dry out usually.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Mistwalker]

Maybe that's it then..........tree stumps here are sodden wet, they don't dry out usually.

cheers,
Toddy

here too in low areas, search the higher ground, it should be there somewhere.

 

[Ogri the trog]

Maybe that's it then..........tree stumps here are sodden wet, they don't dry out usually.

cheers,
Toddy

Thats where I found some Toddy,
on a stump of a tree that I brought down a number of years ago. The outer wood was rotten to the point of being spongey, but inside was more solid. Levered out part of the stump and smashed it about with a maul. Some of the inner bits smelled of turps/resin so I cut them out and put them to dry. So now I have a small box of "nearly" fatwood, in that it smells right and ignites better than just dry wood, but doesn't seem to be as good as purchased Fatwood - but its a step in the right direction.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Nagual]

here too in low areas, search the higher ground, it should be there somewhere.

Sorry made me giggle.. higher or lower ground in Scotland is just as wet .. although, the higher you go less midges.. so that in itself is a bonus..

 

[Mistwalker]

Sorry made me giggle.. higher or lower ground in Scotland is just as wet .. although, the higher you go less midges.. so that in itself is a bonus..

Well...hmmmm.....then I don't know what to say other than there should still be some small heart pockets of it or something close to it in stumps somewhere,,,I would think.

 

[Bravo4]

an interesting fatwood related link from a Traditional Scouting website

http://www.inquiry.net/OUTDOOR/skills/beard/light_fire.htm

 

[Mistwalker]

an interesting fatwood related link from a Traditional Scouting website

http://www.inquiry.net/OUTDOOR/skills/beard/light_fire.htm

Thanks, some interesting reading.

 

[Chinkapin]

Mistwalker, Thanks for the post, I been in the woods all my life and somehow the existence of "fatwood" just passed me by.

I never heard of it until one day about two years ago I saw an advertisement for Maya sticks, After that I labored under the delusion that it only came from a particular species of pine grown only in Honduras. Silly me. Only recently did I figure out that ANY pine would work.

My problem was that although I could readily recognize a living pine, I wasn't too sure about spotting a dead and partially decayed one. But thanks to you, that problem is solved.

Bye the Way, stick with Mistwalker, Nightwalker sounds too much like Nightstalker. That coupled with that big Becker, might give folks the wrong impression! LOL

 

[Mistwalker]

Glad I could help. That's funny because I was selling stumps and pieces of this stuff to people who used wood heat almost 30 years ago when I was just a kid. I don't think it was sold in many stores back then.

If you ever see these, pine knots, perhaps lying in a long line of otherwise rotten wood they will work pretty well too. It is where all the sap in a limb on a dead Pine has drained back toward the heart and builds up in these knots. Some times you can find the center portion of the tree still standing with these protruding from it. They are easy to recognize after you find the first ones, they smell like turpentine inside as well. They aren’t quite as rich in pitch as the stumps but still great tinder.

 

[Chinkapin]

Thanks for the tip on the pine knots. Now another question, can you saw a burl off of a tree without killing the tree? Perhaps by painting the sawn area with aluminum paint or something similar to close up the wound?

My Arkansas property has quite a few trees with large burls, and I would like to harvest some of them but don't want to kill the tree.

Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mistwalker]

Thanks for the tip on the pine knots. Now another question, can you saw a burl off of a tree without killing the tree? Perhaps by painting the sawn area with aluminum paint or something similar to close up the wound?

My Arkansas property has quite a few trees with large burls, and I would like to harvest some of them but don't want to kill the tree.

Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

I'll as a couple of people I know who work with burls alot and sometimes harvest them. A friend recently harvested a burl from a cherry tree...I'll see how the tree is doing.

 

[Chinkapin]

Thanks, Mistwalker, keep and eye on it for a while and let me know. Also if he uses anything to seal the cut area.

thanks

 

[Mistwalker]

I know this stump is also shown in another thread I did but it is a good one to use as a discussion on the characteristics of fatwood stumps.

At first glance it looks like just another rotten stump in the woods

Because some parts of it are rotten

and if you didn’t probe in the right spot. Or even deep enough, you could think it was all rotten.

But….if you look for the signs like the wear of the rings around the bases of the branches

You’ll know that there reason for further probing.

Probe around the bases of the branches to see if it is solid there

This is one of the branches cut off and there you go

When you cut into it good you’ll smell that turpentine smell very strong.

and if it is rich enough in pitch it will even burn in the rain

 

[Lupin Rider]

top thread. found myself a good lump stump at the bushmoot on Sunday night!

 

[Mistwalker]

top thread. found myself a good lump stump at the bushmoot on Sunday night!

Thanks, glad that you liked the thread! Fatwood is an awesome resource in the bush.

 

[NoName]

super cool pictures here!

jeemie! today I sawed a fatwood stump (not to big) zzz my handsaw got stuck, metal...I inpected the spot and opened it..A bullet! One saw teeth broken some damaged

anyway we love the smell of fatwood all day long