Survival Skills: Try Fatwood For Fire Building

There’s nothing mysterious or strange about fatwood.  However, many people seem to know about fatwood only by reputation, and not from actual experience in finding it and using it. 

Fatwood is known by many names; "fat lighter", "lighter knot", "rich lighter" and "heart pine" are just a few of the common titles.  Whatever you choose to call it, fatwood comes from the same place, the heartwood of pine trees and many other resinous conifers.  As a tree stump dies, the pine resin can become concentrated in the heartwood, which then becomes hard and very rot resistant.  Once this happens, the center of the stump and it’s tap root can be great sources of "fatwood".  You may also get lucky and find fatwood in the joints where pine limbs intersect with the trunk. 

Fatwood is prized because it lights readily with an open flame; it burns very well; and it burns even in wet weather.  The resin in the wood makes fatwood almost waterproof and very flammable, which are both great qualities in fire starting.  The fatwood can be cut and split into small sticks for kindling, or carved into shavings for tinder.

To find yourself a ready supply of this fire starting wonder, look through a pine forest until you come across a stump with only the center remaining.  This center (heart wood) should seem solid.  Cut off some pieces of this wood, and give them a look and a sniff.  If they look like perfectly good wood (not rotten at all), then give the pieces a sniff.  If it really is fatwood, it will smell strongly of pine cleaner and resin, with the sharp odor of turpentine.  Most resinous pines can produce fatwood, but in my backyard of Virginia, fatwood is most commonly associated with Longleaf pine and Virginia pine. If the wood looks right and smells right, the final test is to try lighting a sliver of the wood. If it lights easily from a small flame and burns with dark grey or black smoke - you just found a fatwood stump.

If you can’t get out into the woods to find fatwood, you can probably pick up a bundle of fatwood sticks at the local home improvement store, usually sold where they keep the chimney and stove merchandise. I even see it (on a surprisingly regular basis) at grocery stores, located near the charcoal, light fluid and other grilling supplies. Found or purchased, this is a great material for wet weather fire starting and emergency preparedness. If you’d like to learn more about fatwood and learn to recognize it in nature, I’m happy to show you at any class with fire building curriculum. And as always, please be careful with fire and never light a fire that you can’t put out.

By Tim MacWelch First draft published on outdoorlife.com