What is a Pine Knot?

[Pritchett Ball]

In reading about the Carolina's Campaign, and also the Red River Campaign, soldiers talk of burning Pine Knots, or using Pine Knot Torches to light the way...I know complaints were common about the smoke from them blackening the soldiers faces and clothing from the soot.

Having grown up most of my life in Central & S. West Kansas, and N. West Oklahoma, I was not around Pine Trees to know much about the subject. :o
Respectfully:

Kevin Dally

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Pine knots are pieces of the tree, usually knots or other hard areas of the tree, that hold alot of the resin or sap which is very conducive to lighting and keeping a flame. It is also known as "lighter knot" or "lighter pine" for the same reasons. Many good woodsmen and campaigners carry some pieces in their kit for lighting a fire in damp or wet conditions.

[Joe Walker]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

You've been to Pickett's Mill and don't know what a pine knot is? My mother called me a "knot head"

Joe Walker

[toptimlrd]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

If you are ever in a home that has Pine flooring (or go to the loal lumber yard or Home Depot / Lowes and look at pine lumber), you will see circular areas in the wood that often have sap on them (in the case of raw lumber). That is the knot. Cut into it and you will find it is much harder than the surrounding wood and often it can be knocked out of the plank. As Ross mentioned it has quite a bit of sap in it and, of course, pine sap is the primary ingredient of turpentine which is very flammable but very smokey.

[Vuhginyuh]

Lighter'd knots.

Kevin, PM me your mailing address and I'll send you a knot and some ''fat lighter''.

Some old folks around here call the most resin saturated pieces of lighter wood ham.

It doesn’t form from knots alone. Whole stumps and roots cut or blown over years ago turn to lighter wood as well. Why I know of many splendid old Longleafs right close by that have lighter'd knots protruding from the living tree where old branches were snapped off.

[Old Reb]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

The heartwood of a pine tree is much harder and has much more resin present than the softer outer wood. As a pine tree grows it drops its lower limbs. The results is a knot of hard wood where the limb once attached to the trunk of the tree. Also, after a pine dies, where larger limbs grew from the main body, parts of that limb where it attached to the trunk remain for a long time. They are also high in resin, very hard, and can be used as a torch. Heart pine is cetainly good as a fire starter.

[Spinster]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Heart pine, fatwood, rich pine, lighter, soft pine, syrup pine---the name varies as one travels through the rural parts where it grows.

In the Deep South, this highly flammable wood was also, amazingly, a sought after building material as well, for the heavy rosin made it water and rot resistant, but more importantly, termite resistant. One of the most imposing pre-war edifices in Tuskaloosa is built largely of heart pine, with much effort given to faux finish on the doors and window frames to mimic finer woods.

An 1820 era Alabama loom took up at my home a couple of years ago--its a 'rocker' loom that would be too large for me to deal with, but for the sheer weight of the rocker beater aiding me in the weaving process--you guessed it, made of heart pine.

I keep a small tin of pine splinters in my kit at all times for starting fires, a gift some time ago from Keith Bartsch. Not being handy with a saw, I also order a box of lighter pine every couple of years, from one of those fancy hunting catalogues for city folks.

[redroosterinalabama]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Pine knots are but 1 humble by-products of the stately pine. Another, and , more democratic product is the omnipresent pine tree pollen! Yes, friends, this lowly dust that covers everything from carriages to the pink areas of the lungs and unknown areas of the sinuses is well known here in Alabama. It covers almost anything in its' path with a highly toxic powder, allowing everyday working men and women to wince in facial pain, expectorating wads of greenish goo, the nose, gushing water and goo, the eyes, red, and miserable. In olden days, this process was used to teach the faithful to curse and the temperate to learn the medicinal magic of john barley corn.
If any one wants a sample of this powerful powder just send me a sase.
Sincerely,
mike boyd

[Pritchett Ball]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

You've been to Pickett's Mill and don't know what a pine knot is? My mother called me a "knot head"

Joe Walker

Joe:

I was too busy admiring at all the Red Maples there, can't get em to grow in the sandy-loam soil in my yard at home!:baring_te

Kevin Dally

[Pritchett Ball]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

"If any one wants a sample of this powerful powder just send me a sase.
Sincerely,
mike boyd"

AHH-AHH-AHHHHH CHOOOO! Thanks...but NO THANKS! Enough pollen here in Texas to suit me!:cry_smile

Kevin Dally

[Pritchett Ball]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Everyone:

Hey, thanks for the answers, having asked several folk the same question I was getting answers that "Pine cones" were what they were refuring to Also it was the resin that congeals around a "wound" in the tree...again having grown up more with Elm trees, Post/BurrOaks, and Locust trees, my knowledge of Pine's was limited
Thanks everyone!

Kevin Dally

[DougCooper]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

In reading about the Carolina's Campaign, and also the Red River Campaign, soldiers talk of burning Pine Knots, or using Pine Knot Torches to light the way...I know complaints were common about the smoke from them blackening the soldiers faces and clothing from the soot.

Having grown up most of my life in Central & S. West Kansas, and N. West Oklahoma, I was not around Pine Trees to know much about the subject. :o
Respectfully:

Kevin Dally

Its all true - after 5 days at BGR in the Pine Barrens, Jay Stevens was a couple of shades darker as were others of us. Our first night in the rain the "lighter pine" pieces Ross mentions that we shaved off of knots from fallen trees sure helped start the fires.

[DougCooper]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

The heartwood of a pine tree is much harder and has much more resin present than the softer outer wood. As a pine tree grows it drops its lower limbs. The results is a knot of hard wood where the limb once attached to the trunk of the tree. Also, after a pine dies, where larger limbs grew from the main body, parts of that limb where it attached to the trunk remain for a long time. They are also high in resin, very hard, and can be used as a torch. Heart pine is cetainly good as a fire starter.

We had the great good luck to have Tom as the civilian guide on our side at BGR. When we weren't looking for yanks, he would relate a tremendous amount of back woods knowledge on the flora and fauna of the area, all in a period manner.

One other interesting fact about pines - green pine needles are high in Vitamin C. Chewing on them can help ward off anything a Vitamin C shortage might cause. The taste is a bit bitter of course...

[Charles Heath]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

One other interesting fact about pines - green pine needles are high in Vitamin C. Chewing on them can help ward off anything a Vitamin C shortage might cause. The taste is a bit bitter of course...

Boil them, and the resulting tea will ward off hunger. Once in a while I'll stumble across a confederate account mentioning this stop gap measure. Euell Gibbons would have been proud.

[Pritchett Ball]

Re: What is a Pine Knot?

Old Reb, Doug, & Charles...

Ok, come to mention it, what is Pine Needle Soup?

Kevin Dally