Best wood for feather sticks

[spoony]

so what woods do you recommend to make your feather sticks, and what takes the easiest,

 

[tomtom]

nice dry pine i find easyest.. burns nice too

 

[bushwacker bob]

An easy test is to snap it. if its dry enough it will snap easily.But as tomtom says pine is probably easiest and softwoods are generally better/easier than hardwoods. As long as the wood is dead and dry it will usually produce a decent feather. A sharp knife is essential for good control and reduces 'break off'

 

[RovingArcher]

I agree, pine is probably the best in our area and the more resin, the better. A lightening struck tree, or one that is standing dead are the best I've found.

 

[bambodoggy]

Isn't there an issue with burning Pine? Stuff/toxin in the smoke that isn't too healthy for us humans?

Don't get me wrong, I burn quite a lot of it but I'm sure I read somewhere that it's best for use in sealed stoves?

Any ideas?

Bam.

 

[ESpy]

It spits like crazy?

 

[Marts]

Sweet chestnut is also good for feathering because of the long grain structure, like pine. Bit of a spitter though.

 

[gregorach]

Isn't there an issue with burning Pine? Stuff/toxin in the smoke that isn't too healthy for us humans?

Woodsmoke in general is very bad for you. But what are you gonna do?

It spits like crazy?

Yeah, that's the main problem I have with it. It doesn't really burn that hot either, and gets damp easily. I don't like it as main firewood, but it's pretty good for kindling as it splits well and lights fairly easily.

 

[bambodoggy]

Woodsmoke in general is very bad for you. But what are you gonna do?

Agreed (although it's a darn site better for the enviroment than oil, coal and other fosil fuels as it's carbon nuetral - remember that with your little camping stoves lol ), but I'm sure there's something in pine smke that makes it particularly bad for us to breath too much of it.....somebody must know what i'm talking about?

Chestnut can be a sod for spitting but I've not noticed pine being anywhere near as bad....especially if seasoned properly

Bam.

 

[Mat]

bambodoggy,

Nothing to do with this thread, but where you at Broadstone Warren a couple of Sundays ago? I noticed your signature says stumpand grind - I'm sure there was a wagon with that logo painted on the side???

mat

 

[ESpy]

Turpenoids?

 

[Marts]

Continuing with the off topic bit

Bam - do you remove whole trees? In Chelsea?

 

[Biddlesby]

I've never tried it, but Ranger_Bob was saying how good willow was....

I also remember Ray Mears saying "...look especially for wood that is white".

 

[bambodoggy]

Willow would work I guess but it's fairly hard when seasoned and not much cop for burning when green enough to make feather sticks with imo. The grain tends to twist in Willow as well...no biggy to feather sticks or burning but there you go.

Marts, yes I can remove whole trees....even from Chelsea, feel free to pm me if you have a tree that needs dealing with

Mat, yes that was me (well my 4x4 anyway). I was down there for a bushcraft weekend with a load of mates (many of them members on here too)... you should have popped over to say hi. Did you take a walk around the site? It's beautiful....we were all down on C15 which is lovely, mine was the old plains style tipi. They've got a lot of work going on down there right now....wish I'd got the contract for all that logging going on in the car park

Anyway, hijacked the thread a bit....lol

Also, despite what I said below about pine smoke not being good....I still use it for feather sticks if I ever make them...usually I go from birch bark lit from a firesteel, to birch twigs to birch sticks to birch logs..... can I see a pattern forming here? lol We have a lot of birch trees down by me

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[cgait]

I'm no expert on feather sticks but i think its the resinous woods that burn better.