Fantastic video and looked like a great spot. Very helpful information. I have only just found your channel.great content and I've subscribed. Looking forward to watching more of your videos and learn. Thank you for sharing. ATB Dan. 👍👍👍👍👍
I watched your video then went hunting for fatwood. I know where there is a stand of pine trees that were planted in the 1940s near where I live, huge longleaf pines, I think they are called, on a state park. They do control burns every so often. Anyway, I searched all over and finally found a tree that fell over a very long time ago. In fact, the trunk was all rotted away and eaten up by termite, I suppose. There were these stubs sticking out that used to be branches. I grabbed one and pulled it. Then I pulled harder and it finally came out. The wood was not rotten and had a very strong turpentine smell. I took my folding saw and cut this in half and the wood was incredible. Dark orange, perfectly preserved, definitely fatwood. JA
I hope you gathered all that you processed from that piece, I would have... Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience on this topic, I appreciate it sir
I pressure wash the dirt roots and it is a beautiful sight when I'm done. Then lay them in the sun to dry a bit. But when I'm in the wilderness I do it just like you. Nice video brother.
Nice find! A trick I learned from Survival on Purpose was to drill a hole in the end of a 4"-5" piece of fatwood and glue a fero rod into it. Now I have my fatwood and fero rod in one compact package. Fatwood stays "good" forever. It is like cheating for fire making it is so good. Thanks for showing your trophy piece!
So all I need is a shovel, and axe and a saw, hours of work, a huge pile of waste, and I'll have a small pile of pretty fatwood sticks to show my friends. This is awesome 😂
Hi there! Great video in a great enviroment - and a great fatwood find. If your knife has no sharp spine to make fine shavings or to scrape a ferro rod, just have a look at your folding saw. The spines of folding saws are mostly in a 90° angle - and sharp. Sure, you can file or sand the spine of your knife to a 90° angle. I highly recommend to produce a stable burr on the back of your knife when you do this. This makes the back of the knife even sharper and makes scratching and scraping real effective and easy. I have modded the spines of some Moras, some old Hickory butcher knifes, even the one of my Fallknifen A1. The last one that I treated this way was a Cold Steel Finn Hawk I use a lot lately - and like a lot. If you have expensive knifes and you don't want to manipulate the spine of this knifes, the folding saw is a great tool for scraping fatwood, a ferro rod or bark, if you want to debark a branche. I for myself see my knifes as tools and don't mind if the spine of a knife stays original or gets scratched by sanding. You want to keep the saw closed while scraping, because the sawblades are very flexible. I hope my recommendations do help. Stay safe everybody, and stay blessed. Greetings from Germany!
@Kong and Basses Hi Kong thanks for the advice and the great feed back on the video 👍 I have already done what you have suggested to my mora,I filed a 90 degree spine with my bench grinder and it works great.👍
The first thing I make when setting up a camp (even a temporary camp) Is a big wooden mallet. It can be used for pounding sticks into the ground and hitting the back of the axe when needed. Super useful tool and only takes 5 minutes to make one.
The irony of being surrounded by birch bark while digging that stump to get fatwood to light a fire. lol But I get it's for a video and very informative video. Thanks.
For the more inclined person, if you're going on a multi-day hike or kayak trip try just bringing a ziplock back of fatwood tiny dust and chips........weighs next to nothing and will save you a lot of time and effort in the field for starting fires.
your best bet for the chunks that did not split into sticks is to use a wood rasp to collect shavings from them. basically make fatwood sawdust. keep it in a waterproof tin in your fire kit.
+Joseph G Krestan thanks Joseph. If you have any ideas for videos about info you're struggling to find, don't hesitate to ask. Really appreciate your feedback.
Hi,my Mora does not have a 90 degree spine,I know it's a no,no using your blade edge for such work,but when needs must. I have now put a sharp spine on my Mora,but at the time of making the vid I didn't. Thanks for the question 👍 #alphamarc
I seem to always get recommended videos about fat wood. I really enjoyed this video. Keep em’ coming! I started my channel the other day. It’s looking very sparse and would love if you could pay it a visit.
I use the choil of my 37 does a mint job I have never found any lol but bought some of amazon :) Mayan flame 🔥 4.5 kgs for about 20 quid :) I would love the time to find some though
Reidy Cruise if you cut the ends off the lower branches at about 1 inch thick, come back about 2 weeks later.....cut the branches back 4 inches. keep those pieces. you can do this all the way along the branch until it's gone.
Nice video! Wow, glowing fatwood, a real treasure. Do you have any tips on how to best store/preserve the fatwood to stack it up? How long does it take for it tor dry out when harvested? ...if it dries out at all? Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Hi @lonewolfTherapy thanks for the questions. I store the fatwood in my workshop on a shelf,it's dry and we'll vented area. The moisture will evaporate from the timber eventually just leaving the resin impregnated wood,be careful not to dry the wood out to quickly i.e don't put it next to a heater or radiator because this will cause the wood to dry to quickly and force the resin out of the grain with the moisture. I hope this helps.
I have changed from axe and knife cleaning of raw fat wood to a stainless steel wire brush, either in a stationary grinder or in a drill. I lose a lot less fat wood this way.
Sir thank u for sharing! Please dont waste all those shavings that u chopped on to the ground. Even the black shavings from the outside of the root are highly flammable. Please use everything u get from nature!
Helpful video - left a subscription. :) Where are you located? Here in the Franconian area we have a ton of spruces, making it a little easier to cut fatwood directly from dead trees, not roots.
Surrounded by birch tree's and you dig for fat wood? Then you chop half the redest most resinous parts off. I thought you were getting carried away and was going to make a spoon or something
Good info but very painful to watch. Watching you scratch the damn Wood was killing me. Edit some of those long processes that are jus repetitive, jus my 2 cents
Weird, it doesnt produce the black smoke it should be, Im not sure u got real fatwood. The saturation of the video is way too op. All that said, nice video.
Fantastic video and looked like a great spot.
Very helpful information.
I have only just found your channel.great content and I've subscribed. Looking forward to watching more of your videos and learn.
Thank you for sharing.
ATB Dan. 👍👍👍👍👍
I watched your video then went hunting for fatwood. I know where there is a stand of pine trees that were planted in the 1940s near where I live, huge longleaf pines, I think they are called, on a state park. They do control burns every so often.
Anyway, I searched all over and finally found a tree that fell over a very long time ago. In fact, the trunk was all rotted away and eaten up by termite, I suppose. There were these stubs sticking out that used to be branches. I grabbed one and pulled it. Then I pulled harder and it finally came out. The wood was not rotten and had a very strong turpentine smell. I took my folding saw and cut this in half and the wood was incredible. Dark orange, perfectly preserved, definitely fatwood. JA
I've never seen fatwood that orange in my life, just amazing.
I hope you gathered all that you processed from that piece, I would have... Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience on this topic, I appreciate it sir
I pressure wash the dirt roots and it is a beautiful sight when I'm done. Then lay them in the sun to dry a bit. But when I'm in the wilderness I do it just like you. Nice video brother.
Nice find! A trick I learned from Survival on Purpose was to drill a hole in the end of a 4"-5" piece of fatwood and glue a fero rod into it. Now I have my fatwood and fero rod in one compact package. Fatwood stays "good" forever. It is like cheating for fire making it is so good. Thanks for showing your trophy piece!
So all I need is a shovel, and axe and a saw, hours of work, a huge pile of waste, and I'll have a small pile of pretty fatwood sticks to show my friends. This is awesome 😂
Hi there! Great video in a great enviroment - and a great fatwood find.
If your knife has no sharp spine to make fine shavings or to scrape a ferro rod, just have a look at your folding saw.
The spines of folding saws are mostly in a 90° angle - and sharp.
Sure, you can file or sand the spine of your knife to a 90° angle. I highly recommend to produce a stable burr on the back of your knife when you do this. This makes the back of the knife even sharper and makes scratching and scraping real effective and easy.
I have modded the spines of some Moras, some old Hickory butcher knifes, even the one of my Fallknifen A1. The last one that I treated this way was a Cold Steel Finn Hawk I use a lot lately - and like a lot.
If you have expensive knifes and you don't want to manipulate the spine of this knifes, the folding saw is a great tool for scraping fatwood, a ferro rod or bark, if you want to debark a branche. I for myself see my knifes as tools and don't mind if the spine of a knife stays original or gets scratched by sanding.
You want to keep the saw closed while scraping, because the sawblades are very flexible.
I hope my recommendations do help.
Stay safe everybody, and stay blessed.
Greetings from Germany!
@Kong and Basses Hi Kong thanks for the advice and the great feed back on the video 👍 I have already done what you have suggested to my mora,I filed a 90 degree spine with my bench grinder and it works great.👍
My grandfather would whittle an 8 foot oak log to make a toothpick. I think you guys would have been friends.
The first thing I make when setting up a camp (even a temporary camp) Is a big wooden mallet. It can be used for pounding sticks into the ground and hitting the back of the axe when needed. Super useful tool and only takes 5 minutes to make one.
Cheers for the advice.chech out my video on how to make a mallet.
The irony of being surrounded by birch bark while digging that stump to get fatwood to light a fire. lol
But I get it's for a video and very informative video. Thanks.
I was going to write that :D
very informative alphaprepping....look forward to the next
For the more inclined person, if you're going on a multi-day hike or kayak trip try just bringing a ziplock back of fatwood tiny dust and chips........weighs next to nothing and will save you a lot of time and effort in the field for starting fires.
your best bet for the chunks that did not split into sticks is to use a wood rasp to collect shavings from them. basically make fatwood sawdust. keep it in a waterproof tin in your fire kit.
I found just last weekend a 75 lb pine knot of trophy fatwood 💘
Good instructive video sir.
Thanks 👍☺️
I found this really educational, thank you
Nichole lakeerieprepper glad you liked it Nichole, they smelled awesome ;)
I bet they did!!!!
A superb watch and listen Mark. Thank you for sharing. Happy wandering. Paul :)
Absolute unit!
Great video thanks for the information, I've been looking for information on several TH-cam videos. Your video I believe has given me the best
+Joseph G Krestan thanks Joseph. If you have any ideas for videos about info you're struggling to find, don't hesitate to ask. Really appreciate your feedback.
That looks like a lot of work. That's why I know I'm bringing everything. But I do appreciate the knowledge thank you.
Great video Mark, keep them coming👍
Atb Shaun
Beautiful piece of Fatwood
Very cool, new to your channel keep them coming. Thanks for sharing the video.
Brilliant video Mark, great photography for who ever did it- LOL
Why are you using your blades edge and not the 90 degree spine?
Hi,my Mora does not have a 90 degree spine,I know it's a no,no using your blade edge for such work,but when needs must. I have now put a sharp spine on my Mora,but at the time of making the vid I didn't. Thanks for the question 👍 #alphamarc
I cringed when watching that as well. I've watched guys do the same with a pharo rod 😬 but hey, they still got a fire!
Hi Matthew G, thanks for commenting on the video. Check out my response to Oregon bushcraft it should explain everything. I do get what you mean.😬
Great info
Thanks👍
Thank you!
I seem to always get recommended videos about fat wood. I really enjoyed this video. Keep em’ coming!
I started my channel the other day. It’s looking very sparse and would love if you could pay it a visit.
Bushcraft gold!!!
Great video! Just found your awesome channel and subbed! Looking forward to more. TFS. Take care, Steve. 👍👍
I use the choil of my 37 does a mint job I have never found any lol but bought some of amazon :) Mayan flame 🔥 4.5 kgs for about 20 quid :) I would love the time to find some though
Reidy Cruise if you cut the ends off the lower branches at about 1 inch thick, come back about 2 weeks later.....cut the branches back 4 inches. keep those pieces. you can do this all the way along the branch until it's gone.
Reidy Cruise when you make the cuts, the tree covers the surface with pure sap/resin.
Nice video! Wow, glowing fatwood, a real treasure.
Do you have any tips on how to best store/preserve the fatwood to stack it up?
How long does it take for it tor dry out when harvested? ...if it dries out at all?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Hi @lonewolfTherapy thanks for the questions. I store the fatwood in my workshop on a shelf,it's dry and we'll vented area. The moisture will evaporate from the timber eventually just leaving the resin impregnated wood,be careful not to dry the wood out to quickly i.e don't put it next to a heater or radiator because this will cause the wood to dry to quickly and force the resin out of the grain with the moisture. I hope this helps.
Hi, my name is Peeps and I'm a Fatwood Addict! Lol just subbed 😊
+The Peeping Egg thanks Peeps :)
Idea: sell pencil size sticks of fatwood with a pencil sharpener.
I have changed from axe and knife cleaning of raw fat wood to a stainless steel wire brush, either in a stationary grinder or in a drill. I lose a lot less fat wood this way.
👍👍🇧🇷
looks like all those chips are good too
You looked so optimistic at the start of the video, by the end you look like you wanted to go home.
Are you sure?
Sir thank u for sharing! Please dont waste all those shavings that u chopped on to the ground. Even the black shavings from the outside of the root are highly flammable. Please use everything u get from nature!
Helpful video - left a subscription. :) Where are you located? Here in the Franconian area we have a ton of spruces, making it a little easier to cut fatwood directly from dead trees, not roots.
Hi,I'm in the U.K. not far from Birmingham.
Fatwood, good fatwood, is life in a harsh environment. Expose all that you can to its virtues, please.
I heard very good opinions about the Woodglut plans.
Surrounded by birch tree's and you dig for fat wood? Then you chop half the redest most resinous parts off. I thought you were getting carried away and was going to make a spoon or something
Hi,it was just for the purpose of the vid,I have done a birch bark vid as well. Thanks for the question👍#alphamarc
Go to WoodPrix if you'd like to build it yourself.
It's a pine 'stoomp'.
A question from Texas: "What strange language is this gentleman speaking?"
My eyes my poor eyes watching you do axe work on the ground atleast use a cheap axe for hitting into dirt
Good info but very painful to watch. Watching you scratch the damn Wood was killing me. Edit some of those long processes that are jus repetitive, jus my 2 cents
Thanks, we're starting to get a handle on the editing software now, hopefully the cuts should get better 👍
Weird, it doesnt produce the black smoke it should be, Im not sure u got real fatwood. The saturation of the video is way too op. All that said, nice video.