I was hesitant to tap when I saw the title, but this turned out to be a sort of worthwhile thread. Who knew???
NFR Let's talk about "fat wood".
- Thread starter Jim in Anacortes
- Start date
Non-fishing related
ThomasM
corvus ossifragus
Never heard the term "fat wood" until this thread.
Well, in the outdoors context anyway...
Growing up in sweet home Alabama with our limited red neck imaginations, we called it "starter". Collecting it or marking likely pine stumps was standard practice when out hunting or scouting future hunts. There was always a stack of it around usually piled up in an old milk crate.
Us kids never ever tried to light one of those whole stumps. Promise...
Well, in the outdoors context anyway...
Growing up in sweet home Alabama with our limited red neck imaginations, we called it "starter". Collecting it or marking likely pine stumps was standard practice when out hunting or scouting future hunts. There was always a stack of it around usually piled up in an old milk crate.
Us kids never ever tried to light one of those whole stumps. Promise...
Working on a fatwood angle for the next Chapter of @Stonedfish 's Beachy Romance thread.
this should be read out loud in the mid-90's movie trailer voice:
He..... was a cold fly-fisherman fishing a winter Puget sound beach
She... was swimming her usual beach in her pink bathing cap, alone
He.... smelled her perfume
She..... saw his blue nitrile gloves
Their eyes met through the fog.... or was it cataracts....
all that was missing...... was Fatwood to kindle a possibility.....
But there was just one volatile problem.... a buff, completely naked man with long, flowing golden locks and a jaw like a Greek God
Jim from Anacortes....
in one arm he had all the Fatwood,
in another,
all the Magnesium Shavings,
and in his teeth was one very full bic lighter
you just don't know how this one's going to end....
Coming soon to a theater near you....
Jim From Anacortes
During my days prowling the Cypress swamps way down south we harvested a similar fragrant resin rich core wood. Cajuns called it "phat wood" and it helped pay for my fishing travel. Je'll pay vous 5 dollars pour some gros wood, they told me at the country store & emporium. I'd set aside a few small bundles for trips into New Orleans during Mardi Gras. On Fat Tuesday you could straight up exchange phat wood for beads or vice versa.
G_Smolt
Legend
When I was taking wilderness survival classes in the 80's, we called it "pitchwood", and we used to have yearly competitions on who could find the densest piece.
The best pitchwood will light readily even when dripping with rainwater. Super-handy to have in a rainforest "go bag", I still have a little stash if it somewhere in the estate.
The best pitchwood will light readily even when dripping with rainwater. Super-handy to have in a rainforest "go bag", I still have a little stash if it somewhere in the estate.
Jim in Anacortes
Life of the Party
Fat wood can be used as a small "fire starter". I take some two inch long, split pieces of the best quality, and lay them down on a sheet of "Gorilla Tape". I put some cotton balls mixed with petroleum jelly on top, and then encase everything in more Gorilla Tape. This makes a very effective, waterproof "fire starter". If you split it open with a knife and place a ferro rod on top of it ...instant fire. The cotton ignites very quickly and then the fat wood starts to burn...then the Gorilla tape starts to burn...Gorilla Tape burns like crazy.
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Jim in Anacortes
Life of the Party
Getting a small three inch fire started with all the "fire starter" options available today is quite easy. However... finding enough dry wood to burn through the night is a completely different subject. Fat wood can often be found, but it takes some practice. And having a foldable saw as well as a "chopping knife" is key to successfully collecting burnable wood in a wet forest.
I really like my Silky folding saws. I have a big one that could remove a downed tree from a forest road and a small one that breaks down branches for my biolite backpacking stove.
Jim in Anacortes
Life of the Party
I also have a Silky folding saw. They are simply amazing. When collecting a "pillar" of fat wood from an old stump.. that saw is the tool for the job.
As long as it makes the wife or girlfriend happy! Hopefully it's a good time.. or you're doing it wrong..
A lot of people are unaware that @Jim in Anacortes was a combustion technical consultant for the MacGyver series, but quit when the writers refused to make fatwood the focus of every episode.
Jim in Anacortes
Life of the Party
Actually I just like to be able to build a campfire. One time I attended a small get together at a fire ring at a beach in La Jolla CA. A very brilliant, world renowned doctor was there with some pallets and some store bought split wood bundled up in plastic wrap. He had a lighter but had given up any hope of lighting the fire, because he had no paper to start it with. I quietly took the plastic wrap and lit it on fire and we instantly had a bon fire. The highly educated doctor was simply amazed.
My neighbor gave me this piece of cedar he found on the beach, initially it looked basically like crap, there was still a lot of bark, rot and dirt on it, but it had some interesting grains, branch insertions and eyes that had some promise.
I started carving.
A couple of things were immediately noticeable, some areas were soft and rotten, and yet other areas were brittle, hard, and golden yellow when you got to chiseling. The wood smelled strongly of sap, here and there were deposits of brittle rosin. in some places that rosin wasn't gold but instead was black, and just so concentrated to the point of unpleasantness, with an almost creosote or petroleum like odor. Now I realize this super pungent wood is likely fatwood, although the grains on this weren't easy to follow. The super-resiny wood came out a little like wood preserved in wax. You could chunk it out in rectangular bits without much consideration for grain or shatter with a really sharp chisel
The wood itself is rather thin in places but never split like a standard cedar plank, and although the wood was initially a little waterlogged, when I dried it out it still was heavier than a similar cedar chunk should be...
I started carving.
A couple of things were immediately noticeable, some areas were soft and rotten, and yet other areas were brittle, hard, and golden yellow when you got to chiseling. The wood smelled strongly of sap, here and there were deposits of brittle rosin. in some places that rosin wasn't gold but instead was black, and just so concentrated to the point of unpleasantness, with an almost creosote or petroleum like odor. Now I realize this super pungent wood is likely fatwood, although the grains on this weren't easy to follow. The super-resiny wood came out a little like wood preserved in wax. You could chunk it out in rectangular bits without much consideration for grain or shatter with a really sharp chisel
The wood itself is rather thin in places but never split like a standard cedar plank, and although the wood was initially a little waterlogged, when I dried it out it still was heavier than a similar cedar chunk should be...
Jim in Anacortes
Life of the Party
Zak,.. Even a wet Bic lighter, that is totally out of fuel, can start a campfire. After drying it like you described, a small compact piece of tinder placed inside can easily produce a "coal" that can be used to ignite a "birds nest". Fat wood is the ideal thing to make a small compact piece of tinder out of.
Jim in Anacortes
Life of the Party
Ceder will make fat wood. It can be found on the beach or the river's edge. It is not the most common but apparently can be high quality.
Jim in Anacortes
Life of the Party
Most areas of America are not blessed with fat wood. However an alternative is often available...Creosote treated wood. This nasty stuff found at docks, railroad tracks etc... is highly flammable much like fat wood.