Lol BFN, We're hobbits. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

No, we did that vid when we came back from the hike. A little break and all our gear stripped off our bodies.

Nice work on the fire. That's basically what fatwood is. Pine suspended in sap. We did try the magnesium on the rod and it worked like a charm. However, we really just wanted to see how goo this fat wood was at catching. It works really just by itself.

If you look in the first vid. That is a great technique to get very fine strips or very small pieces of wood. It's one of the reasons why the fat wood would catch. With just fat wood shavings the sparks would not ignite it.

Holding the knife perpendicular to the branch and "stropping" the knife over the wood is one of the best ways to get tinder. We also had some really dry grass that would catch immediately, but as I said we really wanted to see just how good fatwood was on its own: one of the best woods that you can get.

I suggest you try that with the fatwood that you got. See how well it works.

Place shavings under the really fine tinder. That should get a really good start.