A large pine tree near me has blown down. The outer trunk is very rotten, but is that darker orange wood near the heart fatwood, or just ordinary pine? Getting it out will be a messy job but if it’s fatwood I’ll put the effort in as I have never had any to experiment with. Many thanks in advance for any advice!
Is this fatwood?
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No, that is heart-wood.
Fatwood is from the thick resinous roots at the point where the roots join the trunk.
If the tree has been dead for a long time then the volatile oils that catch light so well will probably have evaporated by now but it might be worth a look. You can smell turpentine when you put your axe into the root if it Is any good.
You don’t say which pine. Some are better than others.
Farwood can be found on the internet and doesn’t cost much. I think I paid a fiver for eight or ten sticks. Someone here might have some that you could experiment with.
I have only recently experimented with it myself and a single piece say 150x20x20mm has lit half a dozen fires already with plenty still to go (from that one piece.)
It easily lights from a ferro spark. I was impressed - I’ve been using cotton wool for years. A few scrapings with the back of my knife and I can usually get a flame with just one pull on the ferro!
Do try it - it’s fun even if you don’t adopt it for your real world fires.
Fatwood is from the thick resinous roots at the point where the roots join the trunk.
If the tree has been dead for a long time then the volatile oils that catch light so well will probably have evaporated by now but it might be worth a look. You can smell turpentine when you put your axe into the root if it Is any good.
You don’t say which pine. Some are better than others.
Farwood can be found on the internet and doesn’t cost much. I think I paid a fiver for eight or ten sticks. Someone here might have some that you could experiment with.
I have only recently experimented with it myself and a single piece say 150x20x20mm has lit half a dozen fires already with plenty still to go (from that one piece.)
It easily lights from a ferro spark. I was impressed - I’ve been using cotton wool for years. A few scrapings with the back of my knife and I can usually get a flame with just one pull on the ferro!
Do try it - it’s fun even if you don’t adopt it for your real world fires.
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If you look at some of the lower branches either on the stump or what’s fallen over, you might see fat wood where a branch connects to the main trunk. The resin flows back to the truck as the tree dies leaving a residue. A good indicator is where the wood round it is rotten but you’ll find some of it is better preserved because of the resins it contains. This should be an easy to get at. It’ll have that darker colour, the resin when cut will look sort of glossy and it will smell pleasantly strong of pine rather than decay.
You can also get it from a fallen tree where a branch has been broken off while the tree was still standing and alive. The tree sends out sap to heal and plug the wound which then drys as fatwood. I've seen pine trees that are long fallen and have almost rotted away but still have a chunk at a broken branch that is solid and full of resiny goodness! These are the easiest to harvest too as you can just pull them away from the rotten trunk.
No matter which bit of the tree it is, if it's loaded with resin to the point it looks glassy, it's fatwood.
Best stuff I ever got was from knocking out branch pegs of an old pine with the back of an axe. A shaving of it took easily from a spark and produced a mass of black smoke like burning turpentine. Which incidentally is how to make black glass for watching eclipses, by holding it in the sooty smoke.
Looking at your pics, a crosscut of the centre isn't going to be fatwood, and that looks more like damp wood. If you knock out that branch peg and look at the knot within then you may be in luck.
Best stuff I ever got was from knocking out branch pegs of an old pine with the back of an axe. A shaving of it took easily from a spark and produced a mass of black smoke like burning turpentine. Which incidentally is how to make black glass for watching eclipses, by holding it in the sooty smoke.
Looking at your pics, a crosscut of the centre isn't going to be fatwood, and that looks more like damp wood. If you knock out that branch peg and look at the knot within then you may be in luck.
johnnytheboy
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
A whole pallet of fatwood ?? You sure it wasn't just perhaps pressure treated with something smelly and flammable ?
Mind you ... either way winner winner turkey dinner
Mind you ... either way winner winner turkey dinner
That looks about right, soaked with resin. If you can beat the peg out then the best bit is revealed.
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