Fat wood

[danmc]

I drug home about a 40 pound piece of fat wood today. is there anything special I need to do to keep it usable or can i just leave it next to the fire pit and just cut off a piece when I need it to light a fire? I figure by Home Depot standards I probably got about $200 worth for free

gw

I figure that any I've carried out of the woods looks like its been out there for a pretty long time and another few months lying in my yard won't make a difference. Never tried to prove that though.

 

[drhunter1]

we called it lighterknot, since i was big enough to drag it through the woods, so i guess we will keep on

Thats what I have always called it.

 

[Paymaster]

I dug up a many a Lightard Knot in my day. Kindlin is what we called old planks split into splinters.

 

[Fuzbo]

Always called it Fatlighter. PaPa died 20 yr ago at 92 and thats what he called it.
Just for info: theres a business on Hwy 247 betwixt macon & W. Robins thats uses it to make Nitro.

 

[Vernon Holt]

As information, here is an exerpt from a U. S. Forest Service publication dated May, 1921. The section entitled "Lightwood, Cut-over Lands, and the Naval Stores Industry", authored by Dr. L. F. Hawley, who had spent his entire Forest Service career working in research supporting U. S. Naval Stores Production.

He states, "Lightwood" is a term commonly applied to a very resinous or "fat" piece of wood from certain of the pine trees, especially from the Longleaf Pine."

"It is often referred to by the term "light'ud". This material has been used for fuel in the South for many years. Its name was probably derived from the custom off using its resinous splinters for torches since the name could certainly not come from it being light in color or weight."

A further point of interest taken from my own experience: In the early 1950's I was employed as a timberland management Forester located in S.E. GA.

In those days the incidence of forest fires was probably 100% greater than it is today. It was not unusual for fire crews to have to crawl out and suppress arson caused fires at all hours of the night.

My point in mentioning this is that even though we had lights on our suppression tractors, they seldom were needed. The woods were so filled with burning lightwood stumps that even after the fire was secured, the stumps continued to burn for several hours, thus lighting up the woods so brilliantly as to make the area look like Broadway.

In later years these stumps have been extracted and utilized by the Hercules Plant at Brunswick, Ga.

 

[SWAMPFOX]

I passed by the Brunswick Hercules plant some years back and saw train car loads of stumps in their yard.

 

[jrpace25]

Hercules in Brunswick still uses pine stumps but I believe that use it for different purposes now. The use it more in the chemical industry. A guy that I work with previously worked over at Hercules. I will ask him.

 

[Vernon Holt]

People have presumed that because they were always known as "Hercules Powder Company" that they were manufacturers of gun powder and/or other explosives.

This has never been the case. They have always been in the Wood Chemical business of converting pine stumpwood to various and valuable chemicals. They formerly used the wood fiber residue as fuel to fire the necessary boilers.

They are listed as manufacturers of gum & wood chemicals; plastic materials & resins; manufactures chemical products,Polyaryletherketone resin, Polybenzimidazole resin, Polymethylpentene resin, Polyvinylidene Fluoride, Epoxy, Phenolic resin.

I have been told that with the passing of the "lightwood stumps" that they now use Tall Oil as their raw material. Tall Oil is the residue left over in the manufacture of pulp and paper. It contains the same basic ingredient as does "lightwood", but is less concentrated and readily available.

If interested, here is a link to the history of Hercules, Inc.
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Hercules-Inc-Company-History.html

 

[contender*]

Rich Pine

Rich Pine is what I've always heard too. Never heard it called those other terms.

 

[Twenty five ought six]

I have been told that with the passing of the "lightwood stumps" that they now use Tall Oil as their raw material.

I worked in Jesup for a few years, where the Rayonier is located. Rayonier uses an alkaline process to produce "chemical cellulose",(God forbid that you call if pulp), that is different from the acid process that most mills use.

The saying at Rayonier was that tall (pronounced "toll" ) oil paid the bills and chemical cellulose was the profit. Tall oil is extremely slippery. They had a leaking tanker truck leave Jesup one night, and it caused wrecks all the way to Savannah. Very expensive for Rayonier.

For decades the folks at Hercules could not figure out what caused certain stumps to "lighter" and other not. Somewhere in the early eighties, they figured it out. If I'm not mistaken, they can inject the trees with sulfuric acid. Anyway, Hercules started contracting with landowners to inject the trees and harvest the stumps-- the injection doesn't interfere with the timbering, and the lighterd income is additional. Interesting note is the folks at Hercules always referred to it as "mining lighterd".

 

[Johnny Dahlonega]

I'll check in with "fat lighter". Thats what they called it in Fort Valley.

But what I want to know is why do some pine trees just rot very quick, while some make fat lighter? I guess in terms of heartwood, the outside has rotted, but it seems some pines rot all the way through. Often have wondered if it had something to do with the time of year the tree died and the temperature or something like that. Also, most that I get on my property in Dahlonega was made I guess 50-100 years ago. Wonder if it is still getting made or has this changed as so many other things have changed.

Sorry to butt in. ;-) I read mostly but don't post a lot. But this is something that I often ponder.

 

[crackerdave]

Hey,Johnny D. - if nobody butted in,we wouldn't HAVE a forum!
I've often wondered the same thing - what makes one pine lighter and another not? I'm sure Mr. Holt knows.

 

[Buckhunter]

Alright from what I can gather "lightood" or any of the other names is a pine stump highly concentrated with resin. It also seems most of you guys are in the mid to southern part of georgia. My questions are 1) How do you find it. 2) Why do some trees have it and others dont. 3) I have a tmple inland lease west of atlanta could it be found there or in this region. Sorry for my ignorance but I would love to get my hands on some and quit giving wally world my money for starter sticks. Thanks guys!

 

[General Lee]

Alright from what I can gather "lightood" or any of the other names is a pine stump highly concentrated with resin. It also seems most of you guys are in the mid to southern part of georgia. My questions are 1) How do you find it. 2) Why do some trees have it and others dont. 3) I have a tmple inland lease west of atlanta could it be found there or in this region. Sorry for my ignorance but I would love to get my hands on some and quit giving wally world my money for starter sticks. Thanks guys!

If you want to make the drive to Glascock Co,I can give you stumps that will last for decades............

 

[Vernon Holt]

Fat Wood

"what I want to know is why do some pine trees just rot very quick, while some make fat lighter"?

The formation of "Lightwood" has two prerequisites. (1). It is a function of age. Relatively young trees never have lightwood. It begins to form in trees that are older than 90 years of age. Pine trees today are harvested well before they reach that age (most cut before age 25). Pine wood without heartwood or lightwood has little decay resistence.

(2). Formation of lightwood only occurs in certain species of Pine Trees. Longleaf Pine leads the list of lightwood forming trees with Slash Pine being a close second. This explains why the Naval Stores Industry was first established in the upper limit of the range of Longleaf in coastal NC. The industry migrated south as the supply of Longleaf timber was exhausted.

Faster growing species of Pines form little to no lightwood. Slower growing species have a greater tendency to form lightwood. Some pines form no lightwood in the trunk of the tree, but will form small amounts in the knotwood of the tree. This explains why knots in pine boards are so conspicious. Pine knots are simply limb stubs that have healed over after the limbs prune themselves by the natural process self pruning. This is why the upper logs in a pine tree always contain more knots than does the bottom log. (The upper part of the crown had more limbs)

"Also, most that I get on my property in Dahlonega was made I guess 50-100 years ago. Wonder if it is still getting made or has this changed as so many other things have changed".

Johnny: Virginia Pine is generally the most common of the Southern Pines found in the mountains of N. GA. It happens to be one of the pines that does produce a light to moderate volume of lightwood. A fifty year old VA Pine that dies of natural causes and rots away will usually leave some knotwood (usually small knots) and four to six inches in diameter stick of lightwood. I suspect this is what you are finding at Dahlonega.

 

[Win 30-30]

Lightard is what I grew up hearing my parents refer to it as.

 

[Twenty five ought six]

"what I want to know is why do some pine trees just rot very quick, while some make fat lighter"?

That was the question that Hercules was researching back in the 70's. Nobody knew what made one stump "lightered" and another rot. Hercules found a way to chemically induce the process, but as far as I know no one has explained why the selection occurs naturally.

 

[dawg2]

That was the question that Hercules was researching back in the 70's. Nobody knew what made one stump "lightered" and another rot. Hercules found a way to chemically induce the process, but as far as I know no one has explained why the selection occurs naturally.

I was under the impression it was a better quality of lighter when the tree died or was felled in the winter.

 

[Woodscrew]

Well all I ever known it called was Fat Lightard.

 

[Branchminnow]

rich pine is what dad told to go get while he was falling trees.