Lighter wood or starter wood

[sandman2234]

Where we hunt is an old turpentine farm, and the trees were havested above the slash. We had more fat lighter to burn than you could imagine, but somebody went in with a trackhoe and dug all the stumps up and hauled them off. Heard they used that wood in the production of Nitro, but never checked to confirm.
I took a lady at work a piece of fat lighter because she had never heard of it, and was having trouble starting fires. She raved about it for years, and probably still has some of it because I took her a pretty big piece, and told her to use what would fit in the palm of her hand, in splinters, to start a fire. It doesn't take a lot to get a fire going, using a piece the size of a piece of split firewood is simply a waste.
David from jax

 

[firemanpat2910]

Yes we call it fat lighter. I have alot of stumps of it. You DO NOT want to see a wood burning stove full of it. Had a fire call one christmas eve. widow lady started a fire for the first time since husband passed, He had 3 fat logs that he probably used to cut a handfull of splinters off of to start the fires. She put all three in stove at once. The acidy black smoke that filled the house probably ruined christmas. there was no way to put logs out without drownding the fireplace so I carried each log outside and tossed them in a bucket of water. you can cut sticks the size of a pencil and get a good hot fire going even with wet firewood.

 

[chucko]

it turned cool one year and my MIL put a whole fat lighter stump in the fireplace. FIL come home it was still cool outside but all the windows in the house was open. They guy next door said that flames were shooting out the top of the chimney

 

[samhudson3]

We call it fat wood or lighter wood. If you find a tree, cut it in 6 to 8 inch lengths, and it's easy to split. Try for about the size of a carpenter's pencil and you're good to go. A bundle wrapped with a ribbon make a nice gift for your wood burning friends.

 

[Western]

To start a fire in our wood stove I keep the slivers of wood that get generated when I split firewood. I also take a big rubber made container and take a stroll in the woods pickup downed branches which I break up into small pieces. Make starting the fire real easy.

The fat or lighter wood looks interesting but I ain't paying for it. Cleaning up my woods is cheaper and at least some exercise. :laughing:

Later,
Dan

Same thing we do, I have never heard of "lighter wood", kindling sure.

I use mostly 2-3 year old dried Oak, so easy to start anyway

 

[DennisArrow]

+3 about using twigs and small branches to make a one match starter fire.......If by chance the fire goes out and it's early dark and cold I use "fat wood" that I buy at home depot in a plastic bag.........One stick of it gets it going so well...........Pretty cheap to buy also......under $5 for 30 sticks or so

God bless.......Dennis

 

[beppington]

I've heard it called "fat wood", "lighter wood" & even "lighter knot".

I came upon about a 6' long stump full of it when clearing my land - Upon putting a lighter to it, it caught on fire immediately, smoked like crazy for a while, & was the rock star of our camp fire

Lighter wood I've encountered is usually hard as can be, heavier than usual, & if you break a piece or cut into it, it has a distinctive smell sorta like sap combined with some sort of petroleum. Hard to explain, but it somehow actually smells flammable! (to me anyway)

I never really knew what caused it, what kind of tree it is, etc., but it seems like I'm learning from this thread :thumbsup:

 

[sherpa]

I like it!
I am glad to learn all this info on this great free fat starter wood.
It is fun finding stuff up here in the mountains on my property that helps me.
Sherpa

 

[KentT]

I like it!
I am glad to learn all this info on this great free fat starter wood.
It is fun finding stuff up here in the mountains on my property that helps me.
Sherpa

When you're wandering around the woods, look for things on the ground that look like this:

That's an old pine knot, where the rest of the downed tree has rotted away. Then, look around that area closely to see if you can find the remains of the pine tree stump sticking out of the ground...

The knots are great kindling wood, though tedious to split into small pieces, and the stumps are even better because they are much bigger...

 

[Taylortractornut]

Pine knot as we call it here is easy to find as the log or stump roats and will leave the heart. When dad was building roads he used to keep everal loads of them. Ive had one pile here that wa 15 years old. Lightning struck trees are a good source ot them to. Anything standing dead pine wise i a good source. I have a large block I have that I chop a little off each night. My wife called me one time saying the heater was roaring. I was away from home and she called dad. He said the block of pine knot was in the heater.

About 10 years ago I was running an excavator with a stump shear shearing pine cut over and piling the stumps. They were grinding them and loading into chip trailers. One of the trucks had a lot of the sap running around te brake backing plates. The driver in the pull out truck rode his brakes on the way down and the trailer caught fire. We got the trailer dropped. Just sat back and watched it burn. The FD dumped 2000 gallons of water on the trailer but it was like pi$$in on a bonfire.

I have some split about 1 foot long and 1/4 square. Makes a good long match. I keep dry kindling and will light it with one of these long matches that will burn about an inch to light the kindling. Lasts several weeks like that.