Australian Fatwood?

[EMEUTIER]

I have been recently reading a few posts about fatwood and I would love to try to find some.
My problem though is that I live in Australia and all the information I can find here, on youtube and elsewhere on the 'net is all regarding American pine.

I would like to know if anyone can give me some accurate answers for a few questions I have.

1) Can Australian native pine produce fatwood? If yes, How do I recognize potential candidates?

2) If the answer to No.1 is 'No' would we generically be able to find 'American' (or whatever it is) Pine out bush?

I live half a block from the outskirts of town where we have fairly thick bushland, I hope that I can find fatwood nearby if possible.

[cooter57]

I don't know if Australian pines can produce fatwood (aka fat lighter, lighter knot, lighter't, etc). But what you want to look for is pine stumps, or even logs that have been dead for a while. The heart wood will be permeated with resin. It will have an almost waxy appearance, often quite red in color, and will have a strong odor of turpentine.

When you find a good candidate, split out some splinters. They will readily catch fire, burn quite strongly and often give off a black smoke.

Lighter knots are common in the southern US. I never heard about it when I lived up north. I cut down several pines when we put in our house, and some of the stumps are still in the ground. I'll have to dig one out. They've been there since summer of 1993.

Hope this helps, and let us know if you find any down under.

[xxxDarksidexxx]

cut from wiki...

There are between 105 and 125 species classified as resinous pine trees around the world. The propensity for fatwood to exist covers a range including Eurasia, where they range from the Canary Islands, Iberian Peninsula and Scotland east to the Russian Far East. From the Philippines, Norway, Finland and Sweden (Scots Pine), and eastern Siberia (Siberian Dwarf Pine), and south to northernmost Africa. From the Himalaya and Southeast Asia, with one species (Sumatran Pine) just crossing the Equator in Sumatra,. In North America, they range from 66°N in Canada (Jack Pine), to Central America to 12°N in Nicaragua (Caribbean Pine). The highest diversity in the genus occurs in Mexico and California. In the sub-tropics of the Southern Hemisphere, including Chile, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Argentina and New Zealand, where the trees are not indigenous but were introduced. Anywhere there is a pine tree or pine stump, there can be fatwood that can be found on top of the ground, but is more concentrated and preserved in stumps.

so, first find out what type of resinous pines you have in australia, then find out where they grow. i look for dead pines, or cut stumps. not all dead pine, or pin stump will have fatwood, some of it may just be dead punk wood.

cooter57 gave you some good info as well. good luck!

[KingD]

When I go looking for fatlighter/fatwood I just go to the woods with my ax, if I see a rotten pine stump stump sticking out of the ground I hit it with the blunt side of the ax, if it goes straight through, I walk on, if it hits solid wood, it's most likely fatwood, then check as mentioned above. Good Luck!

[gravy_train]

There isn't much in the way of native pine in Australia, so already at that disadvantage.
However I think (I haven't tried...) some wattles would have similar character. They certainly ooze a lot of resin where insects bite them.



Let us know how you get on...or how you have to modify methods to suit local conditions....

[Browny]

Another source for fatwood is cheap pine pallets.

I have found some that literally drip resin on a hot summers day.

Just look for the oily/waxy planks and your set.

[tedbeau]

I don't know if Australian pines can produce fatwood (aka fat lighter, lighter knot, lighter't, etc). But what you want to look for is pine stumps, or even logs that have been dead for a while. The heart wood will be permeated with resin. It will have an almost waxy appearance, often quite red in color, and will have a strong odor of turpentine.

When you find a good candidate, split out some splinters. They will readily catch fire, burn quite strongly and often give off a black smoke.

Lighter knots are common in the southern US. I never heard about it when I lived up north. I cut down several pines when we put in our house, and some of the stumps are still in the ground. I'll have to dig one out. They've been there since summer of 1993.

Hope this helps, and let us know if you find any down under.

As I understand it, fatwood is formed when a pine tree dies a natural death. As it is dying the tree concentrates all the resins in the center of the base as a means to fight the disease or pest that is killing it. Cutting down a tree does not allow this to occur, Same with trees snapped by a wind storm or a lightning strike. Look for trees that died naturally.

[tedbeau]

On the subjct of fatwood, when I bought my house 20 years ago there was a plastic bag full of firestarter sticks on a shelf in the garage. I never gave em much thought until I started learning about fatwood. As near as I can tell this is commercially packaged fatwood.

A google search shows several manufactures of fatwood.

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Fireplace ... QAodBU3x5A

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... wBEPMCMAI#

The second link looks simular to the bag I found, but the slip of paper is long gone by now.