Fat wood for firelighting

[Moondog55]

Not something you see here in Australia often unless you buy packs ar Safeway or Bunnings.
BUT
I like a BBQ at home and I get pine pallets from the local aluminium place to use as kindling
I was splitting some yesterday and 3 of the big pieces were of fatwood.
I have put them aside and over the next week or so I am going to shave it and make small bundles to put into my various kits and rucksacks as part of the fire kits I usually carry. I may even make some Maya dust for use with the flint and steel because I have some very dry punk here
So has anybody else ever come across this resin saurated pine? By accident or design?

[davidf]

I had never heard of fatwood. A quick google says you can get it from stumps from cut pines, I live near a pine forest. And how does the dust get made and work? Sounds useful as a second starter in wet conditions. NB I'm a pyro with 2 BBQs, fuel stove and woodshed.. So would love to know more.

[Moondog55]

You simply scrape the fatwood stick with a knife to get fine sawdust as youneed it or in advance and keep it in a small waterproof tin

[Gadgetgeek]

It seems to happen at certain times of year, as the root will push the wood full of sap if the tree is felled. Takes some doing for large scale production, mostly its found by accident.

[Neo]

Is fat wood the heart wood (centre) with more sap?

[Gadgetgeek]

No, its generally the whole thing, but I'd guess the sapwood would hold more of the crystallized resin.

[Neo]

Hmm I'm trying to think of where resin would collect. Usually at a wound which would be external or in a gum pocket.

[Neo]

Ok looked it up, is the resinous heartwood of either tree, stump or branch intersection of a pine.

I just look for dry gumleaves, but not particularly portable.

[andrewa]

I've used the wood shavings that come out of my thicknesser ( wood working machine) . Also work great for smoking trout.

A

[Gadgetgeek]

Interesting, because I've certainly found sapwood that was very resinous. doesn't much matter so long as it works.

[ozbushwalking]

Fatwood is an exceptional fire lighting tool but seems to be more popular in the UK and US than here.

You can obtain it from the base/root system of a fallen tree or from the intersection of where the branch meets the trunk. Particularly if the branch has broken of and the tree has pushed the resin to"heal" itself.

To create the scrapings continuously run the spine of your knife down the edge of the fatwood until you believe you have enough to catch a spark. You can then also create feather sticks to grow your fire.