fat wood?

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mattjm1017

Feeling the Heat
Oct 23, 2012
408
Corapeake NC
Hey all I was just wondering if its ok to use fat wood in a fireview stove? Ive been using super cedars but i ran out and found the fat wood at Lowe's thought I'd give it a shot they say they're all natural so I figured they would be ok. Whats yalls opinion of them compared to super cedars same better worse?
 
It is just heart wood from a long leaf pine the has a ton of oils and sap. They are fine, I use homemade sawdust and paraffin starters in mine
 
Thanks augie thats what I thought the only reason for concerns was I lit One outside and it smoked like crazy and dripped all this stuff I assume to be all the sap in it. Just wanted to make sure they wouldn't gum up my stove or anything like that.
 
Hey all I was just wondering if its ok to use fat wood in a fireview stove? Ive been using super cedars but i ran out and found the fat wood at Lowe's thought I'd give it a shot they say they're all natural so I figured they would be ok. Whats yalls opinion of them compared to super cedars same better worse?


NO!
 
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Gotcha thanks for the warning Dennis
 
For others, it is the catalyst that does not like the fatwood. Well, I don't like it either so I guess that is 2 strikes.
 
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I just tried some today. They put off a lot of black smoke. I like those compressed wood squares fire starters.
 
I have some that i use, and my stove is a catalytic stove, but i use 2 sticks in a X pattern under my kindling and it burns long enough to start the splits without issues. As far as it gumming up the cat, i dont worry about that because i dont engage the cat until the stove is up to temp and by that time the fatwood sticks have long burned out. But for the record, i prefer Supercedars...
 
I've been using the fatwood in my Liberty.They work well,Two sticks under a split lights it off just fine.
 
I have some that i use, and my stove is a catalytic stove, but i use 2 sticks in a X pattern under my kindling and it burns long enough to start the splits without issues. As far as it gumming up the cat, i dont worry about that because i dont engage the cat until the stove is up to temp and by that time the fatwood sticks have long burned out. But for the record, i prefer Supercedars...

But some will get to that cat anyway even before you engage the cat.
 
I have tried them they smoke way to much i think.
 
They don't burn off all the way there is still sap left over and it makes a mess over time. I cant imagine this would be good for the cat either.

Pete
 
I'm not burning with a cat, but I love fatwood and its all I use to start a fire. Two of them start the fire great, and I bought like a 25 lb box from LL Bean which makes them very cheap. I know a lot of people around here are devoted to super cedars, but fatwood is also a very good product.
 
I do believe that the fatwood is a great product especially since its all natural but since its so full of sap and burns kind of nasty I think Ill keep them for outdoor fires they should be better/cheaper than using gasoline to start the bon fires.
 
We used a box of them last year and they were fine. We only used one per fire and they started things up just fine. Of course we were burning wet wood already so...we were not doing ourselves any favors anyway. Had no idea they were a problem, though.

This year we're saving egg cartons and pouring wax from candle ends (we burn a lot of candles) over sawdust in the egg cups. Instant firestarters. Not pretty but they are free and they work.
 
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I now have a non-cat stove. I had been having trouble getting fire from my newspaper and paper cups to my kindling. My new stove definitely behaves differently than the old one on startup. The previous stove was a very old Blaze King with a big bypass damper. Last week, I just bought my first box of fatwood.

On a totally cold start (very rare), I use 2 fatwood sticks. On a start with a few coals without much heat, I use 1 fatwood stick. When I have a good bed of coals, I use none. This is working well for me. I like fatwood, so far.
 
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