Pitch

[joelaycheck]

Back in the early seventies, I lived in northern ca. around the Jackson area. We burned wood. We used what was called pitch as a fire starter. I think we dug it out of a pine stump and split it into small pieces. you could light it with a match and it would burn fast and produced a lot of black smoke. Am I remembering this right. Does anyone still use it to start their fires.

 

[arborealbuffoon]

It's true. Exactly why some pine rots in a year and other will become "pitch" which won't rot in 100 years in direct contact with the ground is a mystery. I have noticed that many times a piece of pitch will have fire scars and charcoal on it. I think the heat of a fire brings out the pitch in the wood, or some such thing. Frequently it is found in the stump/root ball of blow down trees. It is super easy to spot in the woods because of its distinctive grey color.

Appropriately sized pieces were often used as fence posts. Those things would last longer than modern pressure treated posts in many cases. In fact, we have several of them along our fence line in South Dakota that have been there for 40 years and show no sign of rotting.

 

[dsell]

I remember seeing these advertised a couple years ago in a magazine.

FireSticks™ are made from splitting 100% natural stumps of Ponderosa Pine trees. These stumps are the remains of pine trees, or pitch wood, that were forested 20 – 50 years ago. The stumps contain high concentrations of naturally occurring resin which allows FireSticks to ignite with a single match. When lit, FireSticks provide a very hot and sustained flame that will ignite even the toughest wood.

Use 1-3 Firesticks fire lighter to easily start any fire and can be safely used in fireplaces, wood stoves, campfires and barbeques.

 

[Somesawguy]

Pitch is a great fire starter. It'll burn when wet, and lasts quite awhile.

 

[joelaycheck]

Looks like I remembered right this time.. That is interesting about the fence posts. No longer having any pitch, now I lay my propane torch on the kindling which works good too.

 

[zogger]

Here it is called fatlighter or fatwood. Same deal. I dig some up and use it. Not a lot but some. Most of them though are too hard to dig out, they have to be chained out with the tractor. It's the heartwood and main root of like yellow pines, the kind they get turpentine from (I think so anyway...). A good piece you can dip in water and light it and it will start burning quickly and keep burning. Appears to be just about impervious to rot, termites, ants, etc. Smells good if you like that turpentine/pinesol smell.

 

[darkbyrd]

Came across some in the base of a fallen white pine we cleaned up for a neighbor and put the log on the mill. Best kindling ever. I have some pine stumps to dig up I plan to get some out of. Around here they call it 'rich pine.'

 

[Mac88]

Wear gloves. You'll never get the sap off your hands. ;o)

 

[CTYank]

Wear gloves. You'll never get the sap off your hands. ;o)

Try kerosene, which happens also to be my favorite accelerant for startup.

 

[darkbyrd]

Wear gloves. You'll never get the sap off your hands. ;o)

91% isopropyl alcohol, cheap from the drugstore, gets almost anything that regular soap can't get off, easy-peasy. Pine pitch especially.

And when I'm sawing in the winter -- 2 pairs of gloves. one for handling the saw, another for handling the pine. But the alcohol cleans the saw just as good as your hands

 

[stihly dan]

Try kerosene, which happens also to be my favorite accelerant for startup.

What happend to good old paper and kindlin?

 

[darkbyrd]

What happend to good old paper and kindlin?

My go-to method. But I have to go out of my way to get waste paper. Some kinds of paper are almost worthless starting a fire, and that seems to be most of the junk I get in the mailbox.

 

[Mac88]

What happend to good old paper and kindlin?

My go-to method. But I have to go out of my way to get waste paper. Some kinds of paper are almost worthless starting a fire, and that seems to be most of the junk I get in the mailbox.

Newsprint type inserts/advertising. No accelerant necessary...

 

[blades]

Newsprint paper and advertisements , if it is shiny like or close to a magazine page it is a clay coated paper very poor to start a fire with burn wise.

 

[Whitespider]

What happend to good old paper and kindlin?

L-O-L... That stuff is for Cub Scouts, real men use an accelerant... L-O-L

My favorite fire starter has become a bit of dryer lint (a tight tuft somewhat smaller than a golf ball) with a squirt of charcoal lighter fluid on it (maybe a tablespoon). The dryer is located in the basement with the "stovace" and the wife puts lint in a coffee can... never seem to run out of the stuff. I used to mess around with waste oils, maybe mixed with kerosine or some such, but at a tablespoon per fire-up, a $2.oo bottle of lighter fluid seems to lasts near forever so I don't see the point anymore... save that stuff for starting outdoor fires. The tuft of lint acts like a wick; open draft, fill firebox with full-size splits, shove lint between a couple bottom ones, squirt, light, close door... fire in less than five minutes. It just don't get any easier, quicker or hassle-free than that (and I'm all about quick and easy whenever possible).

We're gonna' try a new method, but I doubt it will replace the ol' standby, dryer lint. The wife read on some "social networking" site to use a wine cork soaked in rubbing alcohol and I see she has a jar of them soaking down by the "stovace". We empty 2-3 bottles of wine a week, and rubbing alcohol is just pennies (and a pint would likely last years) so it would be cheaper yet... but... well, we'll see. Although... I do see the "cork" burning a lot longer than lint after the accelerant has burned away, it might just work better.

 

[darkbyrd]

Newsprint type inserts/advertising. No accelerant necessary...

Don't get enough newsprint here, especially when I start a fire every evening. I collect pine sap from a few bleeding trees for accelerant. That on a long splinter makes a great match. but I want some of that lighterwood!

 

[avalancher]

I just dont have the patience for kindling, dryer lint, kindling etc. I keep a bottle that used to have barbecue starter fluid in it by the stove full of diesel and just hose down full sized splits in the stove. Drop a wooden match on it, slam the door, and ten minutes later its nice and toasty in the living room. I got better things to do than do the "lets get some heat going" dance in the living room in my skivvies.

 

[Fifelaker]

I just dont have the patience for kindling, dryer lint, kindling etc. I keep a bottle that used to have barbecue starter fluid in it by the stove full of diesel and just hose down full sized splits in the stove. Drop a wooden match on it, slam the door, and ten minutes later its nice and toasty in the living room. I got better things to do than do the "lets get some heat going" dance in the living room in my skivvies.

Pics of the dance? I use a propane torch.

 

[Wagnerwerks]

Pics of the dance? I use a propane torch.

I don't want pics of the dance, but I use a torch too. We call the pine stumps pitch pine. My grandfather always has some ready at his house. Even though I spent countless hrs walking in the woods with him, I can never find the stumps. We don't have that much pine here compared to out west, but we do have a few white pines and hemlock. I think here the white pine is the ticket.