rich pine noun A knot or split piece of pine that is rich in resin, burns easily and slowly, and can serve as a torch for indoor or outdoor lighting or as kindling for a fire. See also fat pine, light pine, lightwood torch, pine heart.
1883 Zeigler and Grosscup Heart of Alleghanies 149 Jake threw a rich pine knot on the fire; Kenswick ceased puffing his pipe for an instant; Sanford came from the door, and leaning against the chimney, stuck one of his feet toward the blaze. 1926 Hunnicutt Twenty Years 75 I got some rich pine and made a light for us to see by across Pull Back Mountain…1938-46 Oliver Fifty Years 5 Some of the children would sometimes hold a rich pine torch light to give more light in the house. …1980 Weals Strangers “We’d blow the lamp out to save on coal oil. To make light we’d throw rich pine knots in the fireplace,” Fred says. 1985 Irwin Alex Stewart 112 I went out in the woods the next day and got me some good rich pine knots, split them up in splinters and made two big torches….2005 Williams Gratitude 518 = a portion of pine wood with a heavy accumulation of resin, usually close to a knot. It can be set on fire with a match, and, other than lamp oil, is the best thing available to start a fire.
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
Yesterday The Deer Hunter was out stogging around up on the ridge behind the house. He came home with a long piece of rich pine. He’d cut into it on one end and let me and Chitter smell that wonderful piney scent.
We use rich pine to start our fires in the woodstove. It’s readily available and fairly easily to find where it lays in the woods for the taking.
In days gone by keeping an eye out for rich pine while you walked about your way was a natural part of life.
Pap was the oldest grandchild on his mother’s side of the family. When he was a young boy his grandmother (we called her Big Grandma-I can barely remember her) liked to walk in the woods and hunt rich pine. Pap was her helper. He carried a sack to put the small pieces in and helped her drag the bigger ones home.
Pap told me anytime they wanted to walk somewhere after dark they’d take a light a knot of rich pine to use as a torch. He said they never liked to use one in the house for light unless they had to because it was awful smoky compared to lamp oil.
Granny told me her mother, Gazzie, came to visit for a week after they moved into the house Pap built. Granny Gazzie was tickled pink that her daughter had a new house, something she never had. But the thing that pleased Granny Gazzie the most was when she walked out to Pap’s new garden. The area was hewn out of the woods, with trees still crowding close. As Granny Gazzie walked in the edge of the woods she seen several pieces of rich pine. She said “Oh this’ll be a fine place to live. Just look at the wealth of rich pine right here handy for getting.”
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“As tough as a pine knot” that’s what I’ve heard Mama say about my brothers.
WE always called “rich Pine”( Liteard Knots) !!!!!!!
“Rich pine” in southeast KY. I’m bad to carry pieces in my pocket for just the smell. I should not be surprised if Abe Lincoln reading by fire light used rich pine were there any to be had in his neck of the woods. One of those big ole rich pine knots will blaze for hours. It is not the wood burning, it is the resin being pulled out by the heat. They can be easily snuffed out, saved and used again! Most of those stumps in the woods show charring from woods fires long ago.
Tipper–Interestingly, none of the commenters thus far used the term I’ve always heard–lighter wood. Nor does the “Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English” use it. Yet I grew up squarely in the heart of the origins of the “Dictionary” and mere counties away from the childhood homes of you and Matt. Just another of countless examples of how word usage can vary over a very small geographical space.
One thing from PinnacleCreek has me mystified. When she (and I’m pretty sure I have the right gender) mentions ginseng ID, what is ID? Maybe it’s just a shortened version of the word identification but if not I missed out something in my youthful education regarding mountain flora.
Jim, I tried to add the letters e and d to lighter wood just like Gloria says in her comment.That is the only name I heard it called, I never heard any one call it rich pine or fat pine or fat anything else.
I grew up hearing it called lighter (or lightard). That’s pretty close 🙂
We always called it fat lightered. I never heard anyone in my area call it rich pine. Your blog was the first time I ever heard it called rich pine. That’s what I love about the BP&A and Celebrating Appalachia. I have learned so much and enjoy all the comments.
Many years ago while on a camping trip with my dad he taught me about rich pine. The area we were in had an abundance of the useful wood. I still use it regularly and keep an eye out for it while in the woods.
Last winter, I bought a small package of fat lighter for use in my Florida fireplace. I later looked at the label and was surprised to see that it had come from Brazil! And to think, I had moved from SC and left big logs of pure heart pine for the new owner of my place. I had dragged them home from the woods with my old 2N Ford tractor. I could have been rich!
Read your first sentence and knew you were from SC too! We called it fat lighter and found it on our family farm near Conway/Aynor to use every winter. My Daddy gave his best friend in Charleston a big bundle of it one Christmas…the friend knew what he had but his wife did not! She went to start a fire and threw the entire bundle in and nearly set the house on fire…the stove was literally red and was dancing on the hearth!
With coal so readily available and used extensively, I never got into walks that involved looking for rich pine. Our hikes involved identifying black walnut trees, ginseng ID. wild greens, rock lettuce, grape vines, May apples, and too many interesting surprises to mention. Never once heard mention of rich pine. I am perplexed by how much children miss nowadays, but also pleased when they show Interest in wild ducks flying overhead or a groundhog that has set up residence near the shed. Not certain if it was all the watermelon rinds grandson toted to the shed or the clover rich yard, but Mr. or Mrs. Groundhog never ventured near my garden. Matt could easily start a boot camp for young children teaching them so much about just plain life skills. Those skills are being lost today. Dad took so much time with young neighbor boys who had no parental guidance to teach them so much about down to earth skills. He even coached a bit. It is important to learn things from our elders that cannot be downloaded on an app.
Most of what you write about is new information to me. Some words and customs are familiar, but so much of it is completely new. So much fun to read. My grandmother grew up in rural Ireland, and when I visited not too long ago, we stayed in the rural area and had a peat fire. The old stories and trying the old ways are the closest we’ll get to a time machine. I love your blog.
Joan- when I visited Ireland I remember going past those bogs of peat. The tour guide also elaborated about using peat for fires. I want to visit again!
Pine knots or rich pine was what my Daddy and Mother always talked about gathering in the woods. As a child, and later as a married woman raising children of my own, I knew if any catastrophe happened my Daddy and Mother would be leaders on how to survive. Their knowledge of plants and trees, Daddy’s hunting knowledge and Mother’s putting up still warms my heart:)
Love rich pine, but it’s not as readily available for us. We can find it though.
I know one thing…I need some of that stuff to help me start fires in our woodstove! The last load of wood we bought was no good…not seasoned, and wet as could be. If I get busy with housework and forget to check the fire every hr or so it’ll go out and I have a heck of a time gettin her goin again!
Dried pine cones make good “starter” for fires too. I have a couple of big pine trees in our yard & I gather the dried cones that fall off, put them in a 5 gallon bucket & use them to help start fires. I don’t have an eye for rich pine so don’t really know what I’m looking for when I see a branch that’s fallen from a tree. Wish there was someone around here that could show me. I know that Matt has said that it looks different than just regular pine wood. Daily prayers for Granny. Hugs!
Nicki I have heard of using pine cones and even saving and using the lint from the filter of a clothes dryer. I don’t know how big the branches you speak of are, but in my experience you won’t find very much rich pine in the branches unless they are big. I usually found it in a stump several feet high left from a tree that has rotten and fell, the “heart” of a rotten pine tree trunk will also have it. Somebody else chime in on this. Someone else mentioned a pine tree dying from a lighting strike, I was told by the older people that a tree struck by lightning will not burn, maybe this is an old wife’s tale.
So THAT is what they are called! Until today, I did not know the name(s) of those pieces of wood that burned so brightly in our wood stove. Thank you!
Lesley, I don’t know about the the wood you burn, but if you had a stove full of rich pine it would be burning so big and hot it would be dangerous. Something similar to soaking the wood in kerosene or evening pouring a little gasoline on it. Only a few SPLINTERS of rich pine or whatever name you chose to call it are used to get a fire of another type of wood started.
It sure would save me some money if I had some rich pine here on the farm to help get my woodstove fire going. The store bought stuff is drenched in some sort of flamable substance that smells like lighter fluid. I paid close to $10 for a handful that was stuffed in a a container the size of a macaroni box. As far as I know, there’s not a pine tree anywhere around this area.
Oh. Thanks, Randy, for the clarification about resin-rich pine. Perhaps what burned so well in my wood stove was something other than rich pine. But given what happened when I made my very first fire in our wood stove, perhaps it was rich pine after all.
Long, long ago I, a rather clueless city girl, married a handsome country boy. Our first home was in a mountain clearing, far down a dirt road, next to a creek, and surrounded by a tangle of trees, azaleas and blackberry bushes. We had a well for drinking water, electricity that usually worked, and a woodstove for heating.
One morning during our first winter I woke very early to a cold house. Instead of waking my still-slumbering husband, I decided to start the woodstove myself. It seemed simple enough. I placed a mound of slender, very fragrant sticks of some kind of wood on a bed of newspaper, pine needles and pine cones inside the cold woodstove. Then I held a lit match to the paper. How quickly the fire kindled! It roared like a dragon, and flames shot out from the open door of the stove. When the fire calmed down, I timidly placed large pieces of wood inside the woodstove. My husband woke some time later to a warm house, the delicious smell of breakfast cooking, and a wife who never again made a fire.
Thanks again, Randy.
Wealth comes from whatever is in your heart. Granny Gazzie was a wise lady seeing wealth in rich pine.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story.
Continued prayers for your mother.
That’s good to know about the pine knot resin. We never used pine in our wood stoves. My husband says it causes chimney fires so he never allowed any in our wood stoves or the fireplace we had in our one home. I didn’t know anything about it since we never had a wood stove or fireplace in my childhood home growing up. I just my husband hadn’t been taught that either.
There is a big difference between rich pine and pine firewood. Yes“green fresh cut” pine firewood is bad for the chimneys. Only a few splinters of rich is used to start a fire and will not cause any chimney problems. Rich pine reminds me of petrified wood. I said this but I think pine wood was often used in the old time wood cook stoves, could be wrong about that.
We burned pine in our wood cookstove all the time but it was young trees that hadn’t built up the dense resinous structures that mature trees do. It needs to be very dry to work well. It burns hot and fast, similar to poplar. Just what you need to brown off a pan of biscuits.
Rich in resin? Rich in rosin? We called it rosum! Is there a difference? Google only wants to tell me about cannabis.
It was a common expression when I was young to refer to someone as being tough as a lighter knot.
And in some places, Ron, they add a “d” to get “lightered” knot. The smoke from it, also called by some “fat wood” and “fat lightered”, helps keep no-seeums at bay around a mountain campfire. Been there, done that.
Have you noticed the similarity between the smoke off rich pine and and that of an acetylene torch before you get your O² adjusted. Both give off a dark black sticky smoke that is difficult to get out of your skin if you get in it.
I was wondering if anybody else called it rosin. My dad had an old pot of rosin for baking taters in.
In Colorado we call it FAT WOOD, it’s wonderful to start a fire. If you’re looking for fat wood it’s fairly easy to find, a tree that has been hit by lightning at some point and nothing left but a stump is a good example, the wood is extremely hard and dense, harder than normal wood and harder to cut. We would cut the blocks about six inches tall then split it into small pieces. One good sized stump yields a lot of fat wood.
Blessings to all
My Daddy always looked for lightered knot when I was a little girl. I never understood why, but I do now. He loved finding a big piece of it. Your blog brings up so many memories.
we always called it fat wood. my husband Nan I mainly used a wood stove for heat at our cabin. He was always so excited to find it.
Daddy always called it lighter wood. I still do. In fact, I still look for lighter wood for us to use in our outdoor fire pit. Now, it’s not like these fancy fire pits everyone has today. My Papa took rocks and made a horseshoe shape about 18” high, then drub some big flat rocks next to the side for sitting on. It’s not fancy, but my husband & I love to go out & build a fire and sit around it. Later, my Daddy welded a rack with legs to set inside the fire pit to cook on. We have cooked steaks on that several times. Plus all the grands love to build a fire too. In fact, I personally taught every grand how to chop lighter wood and how to make a fire; a very important skill to know. This brought back a lot of memories. Love what your Granny Gazzie said about rich in knots.
My Dad called it fat lighter although more people around me now say kindling but and we use in today to start fires. Good of looking for it with Daddyin the woods as a girl and him showing me. Again, thanks for bringing back such wonderful memories.
lighter knot, I love the smell of it, people call it many different things, God bless Granny with strength to endure God bless her doctors and meds for her healing in Jesus Christ name
Good article..I turned ole Paul Barker on to the Blind Pig. Doyle’s younger brother.
I love what Granny Gazzie said about the wealth of having the rich pine nearby for gathering! The way she saw wealth was precious. Thank you for sharing her point of view from the past. In your words she lives on.
I have a piece of fat lighter that my father had when he died in 1985. Every year I cut a few “splinters” and start a fire in the living room. We have central heat, but there is nothing like a real wood fire.
I love to hear about things like rich pine. Never heard of it until I started watching and reading your blog . So interesting.
We always called it lightered, not rich pine. When out hunting I was always on the lookout for it to bring back for my Daddy. One of the great joys of my childhood was spending every minute I could with my Granddaddy Kirby. Each year during the fall of the year, me and him would take a day and go walking through the woods looking for lightered. He would take the sack he used when he picked cotton, an axe and a little bite of something to eat. When near the creek we would cup our hands and drink water from the creek. Slivers of rich pine is one of the best things for starting a fire in a wood stove or fireplace.
I know a man that will shape/carve lightered knots into some type of object and then shellac them. He has made some pretty things.