Fatwood

Nordiska museet

, Stockholm

Fatwood, also known as "fat lighter", "lighter wood", "rich lighter", "pine knot",

longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), which historically was highly valued for its high pitch

production.

History

The commercial use of fatwood from stumps stemmed from the production of

King of Sweden.^[2]

Coniferous tree sap is a viscous liquid that contains terpene, a volatile hydrocarbon. Over time the evaporation of the terpene changes the state of the sap; it slowly gets thicker until it hardens into resin. New fatwood leaks the sticky sap, while in aged fatwood the sap has hardened and is no longer sticky. At every stage of the aging process, fatwood will burn readily, unless excessively damp.

Wood kindling and tinder

Because of the flammability of terpene, fatwood is prized for use as kindling in starting fires. It lights quickly even when wet, is very wind resistant, and burns hot enough to light larger pieces of wood. A small piece of fatwood can be used many times to create tinder by shaving small curls and using them to light other larger tinder. The pitch-soaked wood produces an oily, sooty smoke, and it is recommended that one should not cook on a fire until all the fatwood has completely burned out.^[3]

Distribution

There are between 105 and 125

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 it is more concentrated and preserved in stumps.

The United States

In the United States the pine tree

Pinus palustris, known as the longleaf pine, once covered as much as 90,000,000 acres (360,000 km²) but due to timber harvesting was reduced by between 95% and 97%. The trees grow very large (up to 150 feet), taking 100 to 150 years to mature and can live up to 500 years. The wood was prized and cutting resulted in many hundreds of thousands of stumps that are very resinous, do not rot, and eventually become fatwood. This ushered in a new industry for many years. There is still a market for the wood, but supplies are less abundant. Due to the length of growing time, the Pinus taeda

, also called the loblolly pine, replaced it for commercial replanting, with an economic maturity of only 38 to 45 years.

Industrial uses

Industrial uses for fatwood include production of turpentine; when fatwood is cooked down in a fire kiln, the heavier resin product that results is pine tar. The steam that vaporizes from this process is turned into a liquid that becomes turpentine.

References

^ "An Awesome Pine Knot Wood Spirit". stixandstoneswoodcarving. Archived from the original on 23 May 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
^ "Pine Tar; History And Uses". Maritime.org. 1997-07-07. Retrieved 2012-11-09.
^ "duraflame fatwood Firestarters". Duraflame. Archived from the original on 2017-10-26. Retrieved 2017-10-26.

External links

[1] "An Awesome Pine Knot Wood Spirit". stixandstoneswoodcarving. Archived from the original on 23 May 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2016.

[2] "Pine Tar; History And Uses". Maritime.org. 1997-07-07. Retrieved 2012-11-09.

[3] "duraflame fatwood Firestarters". Duraflame. Archived from the original on 2017-10-26. Retrieved 2017-10-26.

[2]

[3]