Rainy, dreary Saturday morning . . . good time for an oddball discussion.

Pitch pine is, I think, another term used to describe what I'm talking about. It is the heartwood from certain types of Southern Yellow Pine, notably Longleaf, and to a lessor extent, Loblolly. Most of those pine trees you see on the Augusta National Golf Course are Loblolly. Two hundred years ago, one would have seen a lot of Longleaf pine. Longleaf is a slow-growing variety that is very fire resistant. It has seen a resurgence of popularity in recent years. I have seen Longleaf plantations that look as if they had been burned to a crisp. I mean 10 ft tall trees with all the needles burned off them. A year later, these stands are healthy and have grown rapidly . . . the fire actually stimulates them, I think. Loblolly is fire resistant, but not to the extent that Longleaf is. In the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th Centuries, many, many boatloads and trainloads of Longleaf were shipped overseas and "up North." The old Sears Building in Chicago was constructed using Longleaf harvested in Louisiana.
~ Hartvigson's: Antique Heart Pine History and Significance ~

I have always loved the look of Heart Pine. I have floors in one house made from timbers that were salvaged from an old school building in the county, probably constructed in the 1890s. My wife's farmstead has a bunch of buildings that range from 150+ years old, up to the turn of the 20th Century. Some are standing, and we have salvaged wood from a couple and turned it into floors, wall paneling, etc.

Most of our wood is probably from Loblolly pine rather than Longleaf, and it contains both sapwood and Heartwood.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words:

Lightard Stump. The tree was probably cut fifty years ago.


Lightard fence post. No telling how long it has been in the ground. I would guess minimum sixty-plus years. It is still solid.


These are fair examples of lightard knots. I picked them up in the woods today. They occur where a limb branches from the trunk or from a larger branch. For some reason, resin is more concentrated there. when the sapwood rots, often all that is left is a "lightard knot".


Old buildings such as the one these doors are on are built mostly of fat lightard. This barn is probably 125 years old or older. If you have ever seen one of these structures burn, you know what a black smoke they put up and how quickly they are consumed.


This is a "heart pine" floor. Same as lightard. Before planing, sanding, and several coats of clear polyurethane (no stain, just clear), these boards looked very much like the boards in the old doors in the previous picture. The darker board where the floor transitions to tile is particularly interesting because you can see the old saw-kerf marks. These boards came off an old chicken coop and barn on the place. The darker boards have more heart, the lighter ones more sapwood.


Heart Pine table built for us by "Buzzy" Smith from Americus. The table is set for Thanksgiving Dinner.


All these pictures were made on my wife's farm here in North Taylor County. As you can see, we love our "fat lightard" floors and furniture.

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Georgia On My Mind

Neat post. I end up with a bunch of the stuff every year. The habitat where I hunt timberdoodles has lots of it and when I see a piece thin enough to break off I'll give it a kick and put it in my vest. Split it up with a froe and use it to start fires, and give it to folks for the same purpose.

A young fellow (24) I know from a hunting forum was making a cross country hunting trip before he started a new job--I took him hunting. He's from Mass.

I saw a nice stump--"There's some good lightard."

"What?"

"Fatwood"

"Huh?"

"Rich pine"

"What?"

He had not a clue.

I broke off a piece and handed it to him. He smelled it and I explained. I sent him home with it. He didn't have a fireplace but he said it'd make his jeep smell better. He'd been living out of the thing for weeks!

Edit to say you're right about the longleaf--fire is required for a healthy longleaf forest. Otherwise it's taken over by other trees, which are less fire tolerant that longleaf.

One of several reasons we lost most of the longleaf was the Forest Service policy of fire suppression for most of the 20th cent. And of course it grows too slowly for a cash crop.

Hereis a lightard stump I gave to a friend. I loaded it on his 2-ton truck with my tractor front-loader. It is about half as big as the one pictured in the first post. I had a big backhoe in doing some work, and asked the operator to dig up some stumps for me. It was a 100hp machine, and he wouldn't tackle the big'un. Said it would cost me $700-$800 at his hourly rate to dig it out. He called it "the mother of all lightard stumps." That stump on the truck will provide kindling wood for a fireplace for several years, 10 or more. It will wear out saw blades, dull axes, and even chip the edges off them. A common expression down here to describe a tough character is to say he is as "tough as a lightard knot."

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Georgia On My Mind

Great post, with fine photography.

I've heard from childhood (which was a very long time ago) that fat pine, pitch pine, whatever the local name, has saved a lot of lives by enabling people to start fires in wet, cold conditions.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Great post Nice to read something interesting and great pictures also.
People usually think of Pine as soft we have some similar old Florida homes built of pine. The wood is so hard that even termites do not mess with it. It is very pretty when it ages like you have pictured.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I've always thought it was "fat lighter" today I learn it is "fat lightard"
Thanks for the post
Steve W

Part of our property is a natural stand of longleaf that we have maintained for many years with regular burns. As you might guess, it's not hard to get a bunch of boys to help with this kind of work. Here are a few shots of the most recent meeting of what we have come to call "The Gilchrist County Junior Pyromaniacs Club".
There are still a lot of stumps on the property, as we go around after the fire has burned out and extinguish any that have caught fire. There are many more in piles around the fence rows. Barring some overzealous teenager setting a match to them, I'm set for life on firestarter.

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We call it Dade County Pine. If you have to drive a few nails in it you better know how to hammer else your gonna bend a bunch of them.

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Dum vivo cano

I carry a chunk in the truck all the time. Can't say that it's ever saved my life, but it's sure kept me from misery a few times!

I love fat lighter.Smells good,great fire starter.Some times I would start a fire with the air conditioner going so the Black Jack and water was more enjoyable.I wanted a fire NOW and would use a lot of lighter.Friends wondered at my extravagance but I kept a good supply.It didn't cost $800 either, as I would go buy a few sticks of Dupont no. 60 with a few caps and fuse.5 or6 sticks packed under a large stump would bring it up like a rocket! Not only good starter but a lot of fun.Before it's misuse in the 60's you could walk in the hardware store and buy it with no problem. Now it's paperwork and too much trouble.

How to get rid of a lightard stump if you don't have the tools or inclination to dig it up: Start piling limbs and other lawn trimings on it in the spring. Continue to do so until the dry season in early fall. Select a day where there is no prediction of rain for at least a week and set the pile on fire. As it burns take a pitch fork and shove everything to the middle on top of the stump. Cold beer can be very handy when doing this. Once the original brush/limb fire has burned down the lightard stump will be smoldering. Without any rain it will do that for days until it smolders all the way to the ends of the roots. I like the smell in the air while it does this. After it burns out fill in the stump hole with ashes and spread the rest of the ashes around. Sprig some centipede grass in the ashes and the follwing year nobody will know a stump was ever there.

I think you were always right , I've always heard it called "lighter", "lightard" is a new one on me.
Look up the entry for "Fatwood" on Wikipedia.- Jp

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noli illegitimi carborundum

I went into the woods of central Alabama back in '81 with my daddy-in-law, armed with a baby food jar of kerosene and a two man saw. We cut ourselves several lightard stumps that day.

The kerosene keeps the blade lubricated.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

Fat Lighter is the yuppie translation for Fat Lightard. Ask any old time cracker in north Florida or south Georgia and he will call it Lightard. I bet I have picked up several truckloads to stoke the fire under the syrup boilers and hog scalders.

OK, I give up! I was raised on asphalt and have never heard either term. Would you enlighten me, please?

Interesting topic- the things I learn on this forum!

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... a little behind in my work

Can't find a picture right now, but imagine a big shallow 60 gallon cast iron kettle full of sugar cane juice. If you build a fire with lighterd knots under it and slowly boil it down until you have about five gallons left, you've created cane syrup! Later in the fall when you kill hogs, you use the same kettle to scald the dead hog in. That makes the hair slip so it's easy to scrape off.

He was referring to a couple of Southern country activities of days gone by. Probably northern, too, far as that goes.

Every farm or plantation had a cane patch. Sugar cane. In the Fall, the cane would be gathered on a wagon(s), hauled to a cane press, where a mule would walkin a circle all day, every day for a period of time, pressing the juice out into tubs, or other receptacles. The juice would be transferred to a large, usually cast-iron kettle. It would be cooked down until it was converted to cane syrup, which was sealed in cans with tight lids. This cane syrup, along with cornbread, fatback, biscuits, sweet-taters, and dry peas was the winter sustenance for the tenants as well as the farmers' families. It took a lot of wood to keep the syrup kettles fired, hence the need to haul "truckloads" of fat lightard.

Along about December, when there was a suitable cold spell, hogs were killed. I can remember seeing a half-dozen hogs hanging, with a bunch of white and black people quickly processing the goodies. The first order of business was killing the hogs. A gruesome sounding business it was. A .22 short to the brain, a sharp knife to the jugular vein to bleed out the animal, and "scalding and scraping" of the hawg. Sometimes the same kettle used to boil the cane syrup was used. As soon as the hog stopped squealing and twitching, it was quickly lowered into boiling water and quickly removed. Then, several people began scraping the hair off the hide with semi-sharp knives. It took a lot of lightard to get the 50-60 gallons of water needed hot enough. You had to get the hog in and quickly out of the scalding water, else you would "set the hair" on him, making it very difficult to scrape the hair off. Think of shaving a 200 pound animal all over. After scraping, the hog was hung similar to a deer, and further processing began.

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Georgia On My Mind

We always call them "lighter knots". I was thinking maybe "lighter" was a North Car. pronunciation of "lightard". I couldn't find "lightard" in the dictionary. And there ain't no yuppies in my family. We used to pick them up when hunting to start fires. Now we just turn the knob on the wall when we want heat. Larry

Fat lighter, is wood from pine trees that lights easily, is very flammable, and burns long and hot. Basically the wood absorbs the pine trees resins and oils and becomes Fat Lighter.

Having spent most of my live here in North Carolina -- the Tar Heel State, for the tar, pitch, and turpentine ("naval stores, in colonial times) harvested from our yellow, longleaf, and loblolly pines that grow in abundance especially in the eastern half -- I'm well familiar with "lighterd" knots as a campfire-starter. Strike a match to it, and all that pine resin makes it a sure-fire (no pun intended) solution to getting a fire started in wet conditions. And it smells wonderful -- like turpentine, of course.

Anytime I'm walking in the woods and come upon a pine stump, it's hard to resist busting off a chuck of lighterd, picking it up, and taking a good long sniff before throwing it in the backpack for "a rainy day." It's one of those "smells of the outdoors" that make a hunting trip or camping excursion so worthwhile.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

I call it Fat lighter too. And have heard it called several other names. I will stick with what I know even if it is the YUPPIE translation.

I lived in the Sierra Foothills for 35 years before moving to Oregon 10 years ago. When cutting firewood I always kept my eyes open for pitch Pine stumps. They were left over from Logging operations. Cut & split into small slivers they were great fire starters. My kids brought me a basket full last Christmas. Have enough for a couple more years.

Sort of like this. Notice in the last picture that I didn't even burn down my deer stand.

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Georgia On My Mind

Maybe Fat Lightard is a South Georgia thing.

Yes Sir, just like that. Preventing Wildfires and having fun all at the same time. And being a good steward of the land.

HAHA the deer stand is still standing: That's because you didn't do it right. LOL. No you were careful and did a good job. How many acres, and how long did it take.

I'm 59 from Lower Alabama and we always called it Fat Lighter.

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noli illegitimi carborundum

Found a picture of me, circa 1980-ish, skimming syrup.
There's a door on the far side of the kettle, with a very hot fire made with fat lighterd knots inside.

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It was a 35 acre burn and it took all afternoon. We were very careful, and burned in sections with plenty of fire-breaks harrowed. We had a highway on one side, and other landowners' pines on two sides.

Rules of burning pasture or pines:
1. If you are absolutely sure it will burn, it won't.
2. If you are absolutely sure it won't burn, it will.
3. If you harrow a 10 ft break with a small sprig of dry grass
in the middle of the break, the fire will use that small sprig
to jump the break.
4. A fire can outrun a pickup truck if the wind gets in it
just right.
5. A fire can outrun a tractor, utility vehicle, or golf cart
without much trouble.
6. A fire will outrun a fat boy on foot every time.

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Georgia On My Mind

The last one I did was about 400 acres in about 3 to 4 hours, not including mop up. It was an island and really good day to burn.

These are so true!
A backfire takes all day- If you get bored and think the winds not blowing much, go ahead, light some with the wind. 5 minutes later, it'll be blowing 25 miles per hour and the flames will be topping out fifty year old pines!
You must be patient and pick your day and your weather very carefully.

Fire makes pine cones 'pop' open and the seeds come out. The 'supertrees' that our paper company used matured in 10 years.

The above posted Rules forBurning are so correct.I have always found nothing as exciting or thrilling as when you drip your first string of fire!I have seen in just 50 yards a calm day turn into wind with 180 degree wind change.Can scare the **** out of you.I used to love being in the woods until 1-2AM watching an afternoon fire slowly die out.
Now for all who love the lighters aroma, have any of you eaten Rosin Baked Potato? For those who have not,you need a cast iron pot filled with pine "rosin", which is hard as glass and heating it to a molten stae.The potatoes are then wrapped in brown wrapping paper and placed in the pot.When it quits bubbling lift the tater out and unwrap.Then enjoy the fluffiest best potato you ever had.WARNING!!Do it outside.As a novice I tried it indoors.As the rosin heated up chips would fly out and flame up when hitting the burner .Very exciting.I almost caught my house on fire.It smelled like a piney woods fire for 2 months.

Well I grew up not far from Savannah, Ga. and we all call it fat lighter down there. I've been around for a long time and am about as far from being a yuppie as a man can get. Besides how many real yuppies know how to start a proper fire anyway? The one thing I do know is it sure makes starting a fire easy.

As far as cane syrup goes there are still a lot of people in that part of the country that make it each year. I know a couple that are teaching some of the youngsters how to do it so the tradition doesn't die out.

Ah yes, the paper mill, nothing smells like a paper mill except a paper mill. I live near Georgetown SC. In the low country,

I have not been to Canton, NC in years but that was once the stinkingest (spl) place I had ever been. I wouldn't live there for all the money and the best looking woman in the world. Larry

Let me add Arkansas as another state where it's called "fat lighter". Unless I kept the box in the house absolutely FULL of splinters my Grandmother felt like the world was coming to an end and would quickly issue the "fill the box boy" order.
We primarily gathered stumps which easily split into splinters which were preferred. But not far away was the box with knots which had to be kept FULL as well to avoid "the order".
God, how I miss those simple days......

Thanks for the information on hog scalding. I'm not sure I'll ever need it but I'm ready if the topic ever comes up!

Larry

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... a little behind in my work

For what it's worth, I've heard it called "fat lighter" around here more than I've heard it called "lightard". But I've heard it called the latter plenty, and sometimes when I say it that's how it comes out. Also fatwood, lighter wood, rich pine, probably others. Although I'd call a knot a pine knot or a lighter knot to differentiate it from the stuff split from the stump.

If we all talked the same and had the same terms for everything the world would be a much less interesting place. I'll never understand why people get holier than thou about this stuff.

Thanks Red for the post. I enjoyed your and other's fire pics.

Its Fat Lighter, anyone who says different is wrong, now excuse me I am taking my ball and going home. LOL

Oh, go scald a hog.

SW FL Native: Lightered wood/stump/knot

Might be the first time I've written it. Not so sure about the "tard" version.

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War Eagle! '10 BCS & '13 SEC

I'm 62 in South Alabama. We call it Fat Lighterd..(Lightard) mebbe. I still don't care for store bought syrup (pronounced sir-up, not sear-up) and have cane syrup year round. A store bought brand called AlAGa is dang close if you have to buy a store bought brand. I also remember many winter hog killins at my Grandfathers house. Scalding, scraping, cooking cracklins in the pot, cleaning chitlin's. We had some great peanut boilins too. Miss those days.

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War Eagle!!!