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Post by offtrail on Jun 17, 2013 21:14:14 GMT -7
OT, I just need this week (last week of school) to end and I can go forage you some decent birch bark. Oh, never mind... MW just informed me that you can have your choice of bark from a downed gray birch and a downed yellow birch. He says he will pick them clean for you. That would be sweet and thank you very much :)i'm a happy camper I will repay you for your trouble and will make a video of me using the bark. It does not matter to me or a little of both yellow and gray...what ever is easier for you
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Post by angelhelp on Jun 18, 2013 3:34:19 GMT -7
He'll be in the park after work today.
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Post by woodyz on Jun 18, 2013 9:56:09 GMT -7
Well there, you go. Shows what happens when you assume something but don't verify. It seems since I was in the hospital my wife figured I wouldn't be needing my go bag, and if I didn't need mine she didn't need hers, so when I went to get the headlamp out no go bags. I hadn't missed them, another problem, complete system failure. SHe moved all "that stuff" I won't be using for awhile to the storage building, so I will have to wait to answer what brand my headlamps are til I get the bags back in here or get into the one in the car or truck.
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Post by offtrail on Jun 19, 2013 11:51:23 GMT -7
Well there, you go. Shows what happens when you assume something but don't verify. It seems since I was in the hospital my wife figured I wouldn't be needing my go bag, and if I didn't need mine she didn't need hers, so when I went to get the headlamp out no go bags. I hadn't missed them, another problem, complete system failure. SHe moved all "that stuff" I won't be using for awhile to the storage building, so I will have to wait to answer what brand my headlamps are til I get the bags back in here or get into the one in the car or truck. Well some people don't understand how important a grab and go bag is. It does no good if it's tucked away and not within reach.
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Post by woodyz on Jun 19, 2013 12:35:45 GMT -7
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Post by USCGME2 on Jun 21, 2013 15:54:56 GMT -7
I carry both. I like my head lamp for night fishing so I can see and tie knots. For brighter work I like my Coleman flashlight.
What is fatwood and what is importance of birch? Gotta admit, Im clueless here.
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Post by missasip on Jun 21, 2013 16:23:00 GMT -7
I carry both. I like my head lamp for night fishing so I can see and tie knots. For brighter work I like my Coleman flashlight. What is fatwood and what is importance of birch? Gotta admit, Im clueless here. "Fatwood" is the heart wood of certain types of pine trees. It makes a very hot fire. It is very resinous. Down here in the deep south, old longlesf yellow pine makes the best. Though the best has mostly been used up. No brich around here and I only had limited experince with it in WY back in the '70s. I'm sure someone else can enlighten us. Jimmy
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Post by woodyz on Jun 21, 2013 20:27:52 GMT -7
WHat I am finding as fatwood is not the heart of the yellow pine but where it has been damaged, it sends the turpentine to the damaged area to heal it or it interrupts the flow through the tree and where it was damaged is more like a hardwood but full of turpentine not sap, or maybe yellow pine sap is turpentine, all I know is it will physically get your hand wet with turpentine like liquid and it burns hot and fast, lights easy etc.
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Post by missasip on Jun 24, 2013 16:51:28 GMT -7
WHat I am finding as fatwood is not the heart of the yellow pine but where it has been damaged, it sends the turpentine to the damaged area to heal it or it interrupts the flow through the tree and where it was damaged is more like a hardwood but full of turpentine not sap, or maybe yellow pine sap is turpentine, all I know is it will physically get your hand wet with turpentine like liquid and it burns hot and fast, lights easy etc. Sorry all you’re finding is "fat" or sap deposits. That is not true fatwood. BUT works just as well. I have retrieved whole logs and still do. True fat wood is what is left when the bark, sapwood waste/rots away. Back in the day, the virgin yellow pines were so large that their heartwood would be as big as 3-4 feet in diameter, the length of the tree. THAT is what the old homes (100 + years olds) that are still standing were built from. Fatwood rots VERY slowly. Down here there are still 100+ year old fence posts standing, the barbed wire long gone. As a kid, I had an uncle with ricks and ricks of 8 ft. 6 in diameter fatwood fence posts. They were over 100 years old then. And you are correct in that, turpentine is made from yellow pine sap. It was still being harvested from trees around here in little tin catchers, staked into the side of the tree, when I was a kid. As a side note, fatwood or lightered stumps were harvested in enormous amounts during WWII. They were taken to New Orleans to the "Ya-Ya" plant to be rendered down and used in the production of gun powder of some sorts. My dad said there could not be any lightered left. He said he remembered seeing lots of 100 car trains with nothing but lightered stumps heading to New Orleans. Lightered has been a part of my life as far back as I have memories. Lots of stories. It was used in so many ways. Jimmy
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Post by woodyz on Jun 24, 2013 17:05:46 GMT -7
OK! Let me see if I understand. If we drop a pine and it hits a standing pine on the way down an skins it. The wet wood scar there the next year is "fat" but not fat wood?
If that same felled tree is left to rot, in a couple of years there will be a pile of rotted pine on each side of a length of wood that looks like a hardwood about a 1/3 of the size of the tree that was felled. That is the fatwood?
Does the "fat" harden to fatwood if left out?
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Post by missasip on Jun 24, 2013 21:14:01 GMT -7
OK! Let me see if I understand. If we drop a pine and it hits a standing pine on the way down an skins it. The wet wood scar there the next year is "fat" but not fat wood? If that same felled tree is left to rot, in a couple of years there will be a pile of rotted pine on each side of a length of wood that looks like a hardwood about a 1/3 of the size of the tree that was felled. That is the fatwood? Does the "fat" harden to fatwood if left out? Unfortunately, it's not quite like that. The pine tree works a bit different than a hardwood tree. You are getting sap in the injury and as it ages a bit it gets hard. It is very resinous. And very flammable. The tree you say falls and then rots away is not the same tree as the old long leaf yellow pine, at least as the virgin timber goes. There will not be a third of it left as lightered. Remember you are dealing with 4th to 6th generation trees that are mostly hybrids now. They are designed to grow fast and straight. To produce as much wood as possible in as short a time as possible. You cut down an 18-24 inch diameter tree now it will have at best a 2-4 inch heart. And because of the speed in which it grows, the quality of the heart is not good. In fact they call it pith now a days. You have to remember that the virgin trees were as old as 600-700 years old. They were 6 feet in diameter. Lots of difference. The good lightered/fatwood that is found today is very old and is starting to get a lot harder to find, unless you know where to look. Jimmy
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Post by woodyz on Jun 25, 2013 6:19:04 GMT -7
Thanks Jimmy
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Post by pathwinder14 on Jul 2, 2013 6:22:05 GMT -7
I say both... I have several in my gear, a hat clip on and a few small hand helds. I started with a wind up. It has become my back up. I cary an LED hand held in my pocket everyday.
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