A few months ago Black Owl Outdoors published a video highlighting a small business product known as Pine Fire Fatwood. I was impressed with their testing of it and wanted to give it a shot myself.
Fatwood is a term given to pine wood that has become impregnated with resin. This occurs when the pine tree suffers some type of “injury” or breakage. The tree produces resin at the site of the injury to heal it. This resin is quite flammable, and has been used by outdoorsmen for years as way to get a fire going.
Pine Fire Fatwood is a small business operated by Michael Herdson. He harvests the fatwood naturally; meaning that he doesn’t cut the trees down to get to it. Rather, he finds places where it can be harvested in an environmentally friendly way.
I purchased my first bag a number of weeks ago. It was the “mini chunks.” It was professionally packed and shipped. As soon as I opened the resealable bag I knew from the strong resin odor that I had an awesome product in my hand. I used the wood on several winter outings with great success. I immediately made it part of my fire kit.
In February 2015, Pine Fire Fatwood ran a giveaway. I entered the contest and won a free package of what is known as the “Fat Boy 100.” This is over 6 lbs of fatwood chunks. I would like to point out that I did not win the contest in exchange for a review. As far as I know, Mr. Herdson did not know that I wrote a blog or produced videos. However, I was so pleased with the product that I wanted to give it a “shout out.”
Each piece of fatwood is clearly soaked with resin. You can see it in the layers of the wood. This results in a very hot fire that will kickstart your campfire – even in unfavorable conditions.
The resin burns so hotly that even wet wood can start to burn.
The video below is an unboxing and test of the Fat Boy 100. The test was conducted in my backyard. It had been raining since the previous day and all the wood was soaked. Yet, one chunk of the fatwood was all that was needed to get the fire going.
I really like this product and recommend it to anyone who does a lot of camping/backpacking.
Peace,
dane
Dane Cramer is a backpacker, Christian blogger, jail chaplain, amateur filmmaker, and author of two books: Romancing the Trail and The Nephilim: A Monster Among Us.