Fatwood

[Totumpole]

After looking at the various ways to track down fat wood I decided to have a little explore in a pine plantation on the side of the highway. Fairly un-inspiring place with neat rows of fairly young pine trees broken into plots by dry creek beds. Kicked around in the first pile of rotting discarded wood I came across and found this behemoth bit of fat wood!



It is absolutely soaked in resin, the dirt on it it solid and brittle with resin as well. It smells phenomenal!



So I have spent a bit of time processing some down to manageable chunks to carry around. I don't think I will need to source any fat wood or firelighters for a long time.




Also shaved up a fair bit and mixed it up with pretty much everything else I had lying around in various fire kits. The smell when you cut this stuff is amazing, and the fire starting mix takes a spark from a ferro no problem and burns for a fair bit with all the fat wood in there.



Also discovered a top tip to get pine resin off your tools (which was becoming a pain in the proverbial): a few sprays of isopropyl alcohol and it wipes away no fuss!

As much as I could just sit here and whittle away at fat wood for the rest of the day, I better get back to the studies!

 

[Sundowner]

Some time ago I dug out a spruce root, now i have enough fatwood for life. There is something about this resin smell that is addictive!!! I always carry a ferro rod and a fatwood stick and quite often I find myself scraping with the back of my pocket knife and enjoy the smell of forest

 

[salad]

The hunt for fat wood is always fun , thanks for sharing. Now I know what I am doing with my kids today