Who uses pine knots?

I live in East Texas and around here you find Pine trees on the ground that when rotted away leave hardened pieces full of sap. They light with a match and burn hot. We use them as starters. Is it just around here where they are found or do any of ya'll have them in your area also?

They exist in Michigan and they are great fire starters too. Usually they never get much chance to develop near my wood boiler. Once the wood around the knots gets dry enough the whole chunk goes in the fire.

I grab them when I find 'em, sure. I only had two big ones this year, and they're already burnt.

We have a lot of pine here in North Carolina. Thats one of my little hobbies goin out and finding pine knots or the whole tree, makes good firestarter, smells good too.

Many companies package that and sell it as 'fat wood'. As others have said it is great for starting a fire. Burns hot. Just do not use a lot of it at once or you will over fire your stove.

One observation- pine knots seem to smoke like crazy, almost the entire time they are burning. I avoid burning them during daylight. I don't want visible smoke coming from my chimney. I burn knots only very late at night.