Collected some pine knots

[malente]

After a suggestion from southey (thanks mate!) I went out to find and collect some pine knots.

In his Bushcraft series (I think it was in the America episode) Ray Mears talks about how these make excellent fuel, and that they were used as candles.

This was also the first time I used my new Gransförs Bruks Small Forest Axe. And I almost exclusively used the poll...

Note that it was getting dark and there was a slight drizzle, that's why the picture quality is so poor.


So after about searching around for a few minutes from my front door (literally!) I found a few punky logs, like this one:


IMG_1085-Edit.jpg by Eva und Michael, on Flickr


And I got a good harvest! Around 16 good-sized knots.


IMG_1089-Edit.jpg by Eva und Michael, on Flickr


They are full of resin in the center, that's what makes them burn so well. The wood is also very dense.


IMG_1098-Edit.jpg by Eva und Michael, on Flickr


After coming home I cleaned the axe with wet wipes, which worked really well (also to get any discolorations/ gunk from the handle). After that I applied a coat of Ballistol to axe head, handle and sheath.

I tested the axe, and it was still shaving sharp.

After putting away the axe I noticed that I had actually nicked the skin of my left thumb with the axe. It must have happened while cleaning it. Didn't even notice it!


IMG_1092-Edit.jpg by Eva und Michael, on Flickr


Next: Trying to light a fire with it. Gonna do that whenever I have time and the weather is good

Thanks for looking!

ATB

Mike

 

[santaman2000]

They make wonderful kindling and since they flame well they produce lots of light. Don't try to cook over them though. Your food will just taste resinous and sooty. They don't produce any coals; they just burn straight from flame to ashes.

 

[silentpaddler]

Good haul you got there; they do make excellent burning. I found that pine roots also have lots of resin in them.

 

[Rogelio L.]

Mike dont wait for nice weather to try them: light them under the rain so if you ever need to light a fire under those circumstances you can use pine knots. Nice pics, thanks for sharing! and be careful with your axe!

 

[malente]

Thanks!

I don't mind the weather so much actually and it would be good skills training (I could use that)! Will have to make time for it...


---
- Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[salad]

Well done mate. now its the fun bit burning them and making a nice hot drink. just dont let the rangers catch you they dont like fires in the woods over here in Germany

 

[Rogelio L.]

I know, I have spent some months in Germany and its a nightmare lighting fires or sleeping out in the woods, always nervous that a ranger might pass by and...

 

[malente]

Yes unfortunately fires and wild camping are more or less banned here.

back to topic: I do have a fire bowl that I can use in my garden, and tonight I may be able to have a go, time-wise. Weather looks stable too (no wind which is important when using a fire bowl in the garden!).

I try to take pics or even a short vid of my shenanigans...


---
- Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[malente]

So I finally took the time to try out firemaking with the pine knots:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77676


---
- Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dirac]

I was inspired to go get some pine knots after reading this thread. Went totally unprepared as I only had a saw and a knife; an axe would have been much much more useful. Is it mainly the knots off of the trunk that can be used? Or can you use any off of the limbs? The one I got didn't seem to have much/if any resin in it...

 

[malente]

Hi Dirac!

The larger the diameter of the pine knot, the more chance of resin you got to have it present. Also, with decomposed trunks make sure it's actually a pine.

A hammer, axe poll or even large rock is better for this as a knife or saw IMHO, as even with punky wood the resin bits stay surprisingly strong.

Mike

 

[Terr]

Bushcrafter's hands if ever I did see one! Well done!

 

[Dirac]

Cheers for the advice Mike, I appreciate that a lot. I thought I'd need some substantial diameter knots to have the resin content I've read about. I did fasion some sort of hammer with the stump and limb combo.
I'll go out tomorrow better prepared and let you know how it goes

 

[grumit]

Looks good I cut a dead pine down at work Friday the top limbs were solid resin wood and all down the centre about a foot
across was the same. had to split the rings for my bosses brother only split eight of them down and I now have over a bin full of fat wood.kilos of it and I got eighteen rings left to split and I found another smaller dead pine to fell today to cool