Fatwood Fire Starter

[gaddy]

Who carries Fat wood as a Fire starter and where do you find it? Knife you use ? Is it in your kit ? Was looking at some bush craft vid's and It looks good.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Are you talking about the natural pitch wood, or commercially made stuff?🤔

[gaddy]

Natural Stuff. I always have something but had never heard of using Fatwood. Had to look it up. Was curious who used it.

[RB]

Swains in Port Angeles is where I bought a big bag about two years ago.

[Rainier10]

I use it at my cabin. Mcclendon’s carries it.

[Boss .300 winmag]

I just luck upon it from time to time, I used some last deer season which is rare. Do you use a lot of it?

[Crunchy]

If you know a roofer you might be able to snag a bundle of cedar roof shingles.  If you look at it wrong it catches on fire.  That's all we use.

[hughjorgan]

Pretty sure you can get fat wood at Lowe’s or homedepot as well. No experience with it though.

[kellama2001]

We use fatwood all the time, it's great stuff! Get it through Plow & Hearth.

[Fl0und3rz]

Base of limbs of fallen pine trees can be pretty pitchy, which is what i call fat wood.

[Rob]

I keep 2-3 small sticks of it in my kit.  Great Firestarter, burns damp and slow

[gaddy]

The base limbs and the root system is what I found when I looked it up. Rob, I was thinking of adding it to mine as well.

[kselkhunter]

We use fat wood for lighting our wood stove. When I'm doing a later season hunt with tipi + stove I always have fat wood in my pack. We use enough of it for starting our wood stove that my wife buys it in larger packages off Amazon. So I always have a stash of it.

[h2ofowlr]

I just use a cotton ball with some Vaseline on it.  Works perfect.

[CoryTDF]

Here is a good way to get your own fatwood. https://seekoutside.com/blog/fire-starting-wood-prep/ after i read this I actively searched for fatwood and found it was easy to find and procure. It works wonders in titanium stoves. 

[Fl0und3rz]

I think the recent sensation of "fat wood" may come from the regions with large hardwood forests.  It obviously starts quicker and burns hotter than hard wood, initially.

We used to just call it wood - albeit pitchy - which was known to burn really fast and hot due to the pitch content.  We tend to just find it for dispersed camp fires, with the stuff that has dried and crystallized under a downed evergreen being a gold mine.

Vaseline and cotton ball is a good substitute to take for when you can't find fat wood.

[Rob]

I just use a cotton ball with some Vaseline on it.  Works perfect.

Good stuff too!  The fatwood will burn a bit longer though - I think I get 8-10 min off a stick of fatwood.  I like to have a film container (can you even get those anymore??) of cotton balls with Vaseline, and a couple sticks of fatwood.  Add a few waterproof matches and a striker and you can cover about anything.

[CastleRocker]

Never used Fatwood.  I've always carried a small chunk of yellow fir, and just shave off what I need.  Used to do do a lot of backcountry snowmobiling/skiing, and carried three unrelated means of starting a fire. 

[Blacktail135]

 Growing up in Georgia back in the 60's and 70's we called it fatlighter. We would wrestle it out of the ground from pine trees that died and rotted naturally. Once had a pile the size of a big wheelbarrow that we torched off at squirrel hunting camp. Kinda scared the crap out of us 4, 10-12 year olds. Big,hot fire,black smoke! Thought we might burn the woods down with that one.
 2016, found a big,naturally dead fir stump on our place during property clearing for our house build. Smelled it before I saw it. Son-in-law was digging stumps, putting into piles and grading. I was watching him when I smelled it. Had him dig it out and set it aside. Still have about half of it. Gave most of other half away to friends.
 I usually have in my pack: 3-4 sticks of that, some cottonballs soaked w/hand sanitizer, 12 waterproof matches (vacuum sealed) and a Maratac Peanut lighter.
 I think when a pine or fir tree dies naturally and rots away above ground a lot of the pitch travels down the tree to the roots.

 

[DOUBLELUNG]

Y'all are making me feel bad, I carry a sealed pack of army surplus trioxane in my pack.  Before that, an inch of dryer lint in the bottom of a ziploc sandwich bag soaked with melted paraffin.  I do love burning a good pitchy stump though.

[gaddy]

From what i saw, finely shaved it takes a spark easily with a pharo rod or other ignition source. Even damp. Hope to find some next time in the woods to add to my kit.