Homemade Waxwood vs Natural Fatwood

The natural fatwood burnt for 44 seconds Home made fatwood burnt for 28 seconds

Alternative.. Dry cedar, about 3 inches long, split into dime size sticks. Cheap tiki torch oil - find one without alcohol, burns too fast/evaporates. Soak wood in oil 24 hours, dry it, drop it into melted wax for a quick exterior seal so the oil stays put. Feather it on one end, it'll burn along its length.

Split the wood keep it inside for 1-2 weeks by a radiator if the Mrs doesn’t mind, this will stop the foaming as much & speed up the process, the blackening is the sap/water & c wax mixing at it’s burning temp as the wax floats on top of the water/sap! Great vid well done!

Great video. I use an egg carton, cut up individual cups, pack dryer lint into a cup and drip some candle wax onto the lint. They ignite very well and the dense egg carton and wax hold flame long enough to ignite the kindling. Easy and quick to make.

Quite interesting comparison, thanks for showing. I'm living in Northern Germany and don't have access to natural fatwood and didn't want to buy it from the U.S. either, so I made waxwood at home - it works really well. From my experience I can tell you that you had your lucky day - if wax is smoking and turns dark, it's just a hair away from self-ignition. Your stove was way too hot. Just like you I guess, the bubbles indicate moisture in the wood, which is boiled out - but that means, to the end the wood is filled with steam, not with wax. In order to draw a significant amount of wax into the wood, you have to remove your tray from the fire and let it cool down a bit, using a weight to keep the wood submerged. Afterwards I heated the waxwood with a heatgun and melted the excess wax. To save as much space as possible, I 'boiled' some small pencils in wax too for my Altoids-type mini survival kits. Using a pencil sharpener to create nice even shavings, they work like a charm, a pile like yours burning for more than a minute.

I buy a pack of popsicle sticks and cut them in half and do this same process I fill a Altoids (American mint candy) tin with them and pair it with clothes dryer lint and multiple mini cigarette lighters and some water proof matches and some birthday candles it's a pretty decent alternative to fatwood it'll keep you warm while you are out Savaging for natural fat wood

Just a small tip, go to any thrift store and buy a used crock pot. It is much safer for this. I do this in my garage overnight in a Crock-Pot. It gets hot enough to boil water out of the wood. But not so hot it will catch fire.

I have been using fluff from the tumble drier with a bit of vasalene. Im going to try to find some fatwood on a walk today. Great video.

Saw an American explain fat wood, didn’t know you could make your own. Thanks for the vid, very interesting especially the split screen. 👍

I soaked palette wood in cheap tiki torch petroleum (with citronella, they say) for 48 hours and sealed it with hot candle wax. Those work fine, I just cut some feathers and lite it with a ferro rod. I just use this stuff when I run out of natural fatwood. I'm gonna try out the wax sticks next time, it looks promising.

It occurs to me that the tea lights are lovely for making fire starters using sawdust: Just melt the wax, fill the pan with sawdust to make a paste, then pack the past back into the tea light tins to make pucks!

It might be safer to have the wax container in another water bath so that the flame won't ignite the fumes as easily.

Fantástico!!!!.... Que tiempo aproximado ha durado el proceso?.... Yo lo he intentado al baño María y no absorbe igual la. Parafina...... Otra formularon es mezclar acido estérico, y, aceite de cocina usado...

Fanwood traditional is found at tge center core of a conifer type tree trunk that aligns with the main tape root of the tree. It was pulled from fallen or cut down tree stumps. Branches unless large are not as thru and thru impregnated with the turpentine in the Pi e sap. It's most concentrated at the head of the tape root.

Good comparison test. I believe I will make some of my own fatwood now that I've seen your video. Still, I want to go into the piney woods soon and gather up some fatwood for the sake of getting out in the great outdoors.

I heat up Paraffin wax, paraffin oil and toilet bowl wax rings ( it’s a very sticky wax ) then cut up 6-8” long pieces of sisal, jute and cotton rope. Soak them in the melted mixture till no more bubbles come out. Pull out the rope pieces and let them drip into the pan. Lay on a silicone sheet to cool. You can cut off pieces or fray the ends as needed.

If you have saw dust you can mix sawdust and molten wax and form shapes to fit into your bag. Use a baggie to keep it separated in your rutsack or bag.

What do for firestarters for my grill is. First I have cardboard egg cartons. In each egg compartment I stuff lint from my clothes drier. Then melt tea candles and pour over each lint filled egg compartment and let dry cut each square out and start my grill with. You could use cotton balls but I dont like to waste so I recycle what I have

i think the frothing or bubbles is air being dissplaced by the hot wax not water

You can also make trench candles. Roll up newspaper tightly into a pencil thickness or less. Tie a string around the center and submerge into melted wax. I've never tested with a ferro rod but they're great cheap fire extenders for bad weather.