LOL I was in the woods yesterday doing the same thing! My tree was a Larch that I cut two years ago for carving spoons but found it was too resinous for spoonwood. I cut the limb sections away like you. Near the top I cut one limb hatchet handle length and bucked down throught the log both sides of the stub to make a commander. This is just a little wooden maul to use to whack the hatchet. I switched from my limbing hatchet to a coarse wedge splitter and a tap with the wooden maul easily splits the fatwood without damaging my hatchet head or risking flying metal pieces. On the way out of the woods I got some Chaga for a nice cup of tea after all that work. Shout out from Nova Scotia!
Sounds like you’re much more resourceful than I am. Good job finding Chaga, I don’t think we get that over here in the PNW. Thanks for watching and commenting. 🪓
I’m no expert, and it’s definitely not as instantly combustible as root-ball fatwood, which I have yet to attack on this tree. But anywhere the resin collects will be fat in the right species.
Oh that’s good stuff for sure. There will usually be big chunks like that in the root ball of really resinous species of pine. This tree was a hemlock, and all I was doing was trimming the branches to make the site accessible, so these little chunks were just a fun discovery. Thanks for watching! :)
I think you mean either the Helko hatchet: amzn.to/3MX6ZaJ or my old brush axe which is sadly discontinued, though it has been replaced with this one: amzn.to/3zrsk9k - Either way, there ya go, and thanks for watching!
The BEST fatwood does. Even different pine types have different levels of goodness. But any resin rich evergreen will produce resin rich wood at stumps and joints. Same way Sugar Maple has the BEST syrup, but any Maple (Acer), and many other species can also be tapped for syrup. Hickory, Birch, etc.
Holy Smoke! I have several huge hemlocks down. I must be sitting on a bunch of that! Gotta go check.
Thanks so much! 👍
LOL I was in the woods yesterday doing the same thing! My tree was a Larch that I cut two years ago for carving spoons but found it was too resinous for spoonwood. I cut the limb sections away like you. Near the top I cut one limb hatchet handle length and bucked down throught the log both sides of the stub to make a commander. This is just a little wooden maul to use to whack the hatchet. I switched from my limbing hatchet to a coarse wedge splitter and a tap with the wooden maul easily splits the fatwood without damaging my hatchet head or risking flying metal pieces. On the way out of the woods I got some Chaga for a nice cup of tea after all that work. Shout out from Nova Scotia!
Sounds like you’re much more resourceful than I am. Good job finding Chaga, I don’t think we get that over here in the PNW. Thanks for watching and commenting. 🪓
Thanks for this information! I know that limb wood is great firewood but didn't realize that you can make fatwood from them.
I’m no expert, and it’s definitely not as instantly combustible as root-ball fatwood, which I have yet to attack on this tree. But anywhere the resin collects will be fat in the right species.
Nice video, I’ve got some fatwood that’s completely dark Orange, almost red all the way through out.
Oh that’s good stuff for sure. There will usually be big chunks like that in the root ball of really resinous species of pine. This tree was a hemlock, and all I was doing was trimming the branches to make the site accessible, so these little chunks were just a fun discovery. Thanks for watching! :)
What is that beautiful tool called you chop the FW with?
I think you mean either the Helko hatchet: amzn.to/3MX6ZaJ or my old brush axe which is sadly discontinued, though it has been replaced with this one: amzn.to/3zrsk9k - Either way, there ya go, and thanks for watching!
My wife found some fatwood over at the neighbors last month 😢
🥁 🙄
Impressive
Does fat wood came only from pine trees 🤔
The BEST fatwood does. Even different pine types have different levels of goodness. But any resin rich evergreen will produce resin rich wood at stumps and joints. Same way Sugar Maple has the BEST syrup, but any Maple (Acer), and many other species can also be tapped for syrup. Hickory, Birch, etc.