kindling/"fatwood"

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Can anyone tell me what or why some pines age and make great fire starter and others don't??? Is it a different type of pine or the way it ages? Even my husband and his uncles who were raised in the country can tell me!!!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), October 18, 2000

Answers

I believe fatwood is where a limb broke off or some other type of scar occurred on the truck and it is covered with pine rosin.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 19, 2000.

Several years ago, on the back side of our woods, we found a whole stump (almost 5' tall and 3" wide) it's the best "fatwood" we have EVER seen.It only takes 1 small pcs and one match to start a large rolling fire!We have shared it with others~~they all want to know where we got it! Would the whole stump be covered with pine sap??

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), October 19, 2000.

The pine knots/lighter wood/kindling hereabouts is the result of old growth pines. The heartwood starts forming once the tree matures. Unfortunately, under modern silvicultural practices, pines are cut as soon as they reach cutting size. Only the older trees will produce the kindling. Once the tree dies, the sapwood will rot out or be eaten by bugs/termites. What remains is the heartwood, very resistant to insects. The virgin old growth pines were predominantly heart wood, and the wood was similar to cedar in it's insect resistance. There are barns still around here over a hundred years old made out of heart pine.

If you've got some large pines on your property, odds are there'll be some heartwood in them. If the tree dies, in a few years the bug's'll eat the sapwood and leave the heartwood. I've dragged giant logs that were too crooked for lumber, or some left by loggers, cause they were 'worthless', over to a lazy spot on my land, and let em rot. Five or six years later, I end up with a quarter cord of lighter pine. If I waited for nature to take it's course and left the logs in place in the woods, they'd either burn during controlled burns, or be scavenged by woodcutters searching for the pine knots/lighter wood.

-- phil briggs (phillipbriggs@thenett.com), October 19, 2000.


Here's a couple of things I found. Maybe not THE answer but useful additional information...

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/011199/ope_0111990003.shtml

http://water.dnr.state.sc.us/magazine/magazinema00/html/forum3ma00.htm

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), October 19, 2000.


Fat wood, lighter wood, or "fat lightered" as its called here in the deep south, can be the result of several occurances. For instance, if a mature pine of certain varieties is cut down in winter, when the sap is "down," the stump will turn to lighter. If the same tree were hit by lightning in the summer, when the sap is "up," the heartwood of the entire tree would turn to lighter. Another form of fatwood that is common is called "catface" around here. It is the result of scarring, frequently caused by the harvesting of turpentine, which was a major industry in these parts a while back. The longleaf yellow pine seems to be the most common variety of fatwood. This is my understanding of how this occurs, just from slogging around in the swamp for 50 years. Someone with some booklearning may be able to either refute or confirm this info.

-- Dan G./N. Fl. (stagecoach@hotmail.com), October 19, 2000.


Wow, what great info guys. Now, let me get this straight. (bear with me), It's the sap that makes pine not so good a wood to burn, right? And after a pine tree has been down for a few years the bugs eat most of the sap? And you're left with a much better wood for kindling? Reason I'm asking is, when we built our driveway, there were a bunch of tall, old pines that we had to cut down and they are still laying off side of the driveway. This has been five years ago. Didn't think the pines would be good for anything. If I understand right, you're saying this is good for kindling? Thanks for being patient with me, I've got alot to learn about firewood!

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), October 21, 2000.

We had a big chunk of the pine on our property timbered since we had pine beetles. The loggers told us that the trees cut down after the pinecones fell (perhaps that is when the sap is running, this was early winter) would be great for (lighter pine). The woodstove places near the Mall in Houston sells little pretty bundles of lighter pine for 10$. Geeze! We cut down pine along with our oak and hickory for firewood each year, we keep the pine seperate and use it to heat the house very quickly, I prefer to burn it during the day since it is quick hot fires that crackle and pop, we leave the hickory and oak for longer burns, overnight or when we are buzy. It is a kick how folks who use wood for their heating all have such different "rituals" for both starting and stocking thier fires! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 22, 2000.

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