Artificial Fatwood

[Golb]

A time ago I was looking for fatwood, but i couldn't find any. The only thing that I could find was really dry and porous wood. When I came home I decided to make my own fatwood. Fatwood is just wood and fat (resin ) so it shouldn't be so difficult to make it myself.

I took a small saucepan and filled it with paraffin which I saved from all the candles my wife burned the last two years. Once melted I dropped the pieces of wood in the paraffin.

The bubbles you see on the picture is not the paraffin that's boiling, but the air that's coming out the dried wood and being replaced by paraffin.

Once all the bubbles were gone I let the pieces of wood cool down, so the paraffin could harden out. A few hours later I tried the first piece of self made fatwood.

[video=youtube;d9bk2LBmR7U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9bk2LBmR7U[/video]

The first two times I tried to light the fatwood (and all other attempts after this video) were successful as of the first or second strike. Only in this video (which is uncut) it took me 21 strokes to get the fatwood burning. It just needs that one little hot sparkle...

 

[Mesquite]

Interesting idea... how long did it take the wax to soak all the way into the wood?

 

[Golb]

In this case about half an hour. Also you must be sure the paraffin is hot enough, so it can be soaked up much easier.

 

[Melonfish]

Interesting experiment, can i ask how you collected all the paraffin? you said from candles?

 

[Golb]

When a tealight is all burned up, there is a small amount of wax left. I collected these little pieces of wax and recycled them. Ofcourse, if your wife doesn't burn that much candles as mine, you could also use complete candles to melt

 

[Toddy]

You had me confused for a moment there Paraffin wax.

Basically you've waxed the wood

I tried this a while back but did it like the Grannies did with kindling sticks, soaking the wood splints in turps with beeswax dissolved in it.
That worked well.

Timely post

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Prodigal Son]

This is a tongue in cheek reply and not meant to offend, but if it does hey-ho!

If you are going to all this effort to manufacture something to take with you, wouldn't it just be easier and possibly cheaper (accounting for the wasted pan) to just buy fire lighters?

Not looking to pick a fight here, but it just seems a lot of time and effort collecting candle stubs, collecting wood, boiling and preparing to do something that is already out there and not particularly expensive.

I know I haven't accounted for the 'because I can/ wanted to/ just because it was a fun thing to do' argument but it just seems to me that as you are preparing this to take with you, there are better alternatives?

It does look fun though!

 

[Tadpole]

In today’s throw away culture I guess it may be “easier” to buy petroleum/chemical based firelighters, but
He had the wood
He had the wax
He had the time.
He learnt something from the experiment. And we gain knowledge from his experiment.

 

[Melonfish]

I think he's gone the artificial route because he can't find any natural fatwood, tbh i'm tempted to give this a go myself as the wife burns alot of tealights, actually i do too
reckon i should give some of those sawdust/candle lighters a bash too whilst i'm at it, we always have a little left over from doing the guinea pig cage.

 

[MSkiba]

looks more like fat-charcole not wood

Why not just cover match sticks with wax, leaving the tip clean? one strike and it will light for ages.

 

[Golb]

I meant indeed Paraffin wax, not the pure paraffin. Sorry for the confusion.

@Progidal Son It's indeed cheaper to buy lighters but it was just an experiment. I had all the ingredients available and the time. The pan was not wasted by the way. You can easily clean it by heating it up a little and then whipe it clean with a paper towel.

These day's Bushcraft / Survival-scene is a lot about preparing things that are actually unnessesary. Why would you use petroleum soaked cotton balls and a firesteel if you carry a knife and know how to make a fire bow? Why would you boil your horse fungus amadou in potassium nitrate to make it ignite better when you use your flint and steel striker? Wouldn't that be cheating neither? You can't make potassium nitrate yourself. It's just a hobby and an ideal time-killer

I don't carry this artificial fatwood in my kit, but I'm using it to light my BBQ. It's perfect for that and it doens't smell bad

 

[Toddy]

Besides, "waste not, want not"

They give a very good light on a campfire

cheers,
Toddy

 

[redandshane]

A wee bit of that in a coat pocket might come in very handy when trying to get a fire going if things are a bit damp But maybe that's just me; I have bits of stuff in coat pockets even when at work!!

 

[Wayland]

Another thing you can do with candle stubs is this

 

[Bush_Man]

Never had any problem finding fatwood. I have hundreds of pines surrounding the house (mixed with some oaks, cork oaks and eucalyptus) and after the big winter storms when the trees fall, it's easy to find big chunks impregnated with resin and besides, they ignite pretty well compared to the artificial ones.

Here's a vid showing:

[video=youtube;_XqcXSI2Ogg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XqcXSI2Ogg[/video]

And now with a modification on my firesteel that I learned at bushcraft-pt (thanks Farrobeira), I always carry some bits and they're completely protected against the elements in case I don't find any good tinder when I'm out:

But nevertheless it's good that people experiment new things.