[knotthead britt]

i have only been carving for around a year.i would like to darken my lines in the hair and beard without darkening the rest no more than i have to.also should i seal it with something when i am finished.

[Thomp]

fat lighter pine is full of pitch, i dont think you could get a finish to stick to it, then if you did, the rosin will eventualy weap through anyway...

maybe something like paste wax like minwax??? but thats only a guess...

if you can stand the smoke, use a wood burner to darken the hair

[wade clark]

Thomp is right, fat lighter is just that, a great fire starter, due to the concentrated "fat", very easy to light with a wooden match. Still you might try a wood burner on a scrap and see how flamable it is, then if you feel okay with it, darken the hair and beard with it. I can't imagine any kind of sealer or finish that wouldn't eventually be damaged by the pitch; I'd leave it bare. I tend to leave carvings bare or just stain them anyway though.
Beautiful wood, if it's like any I've ever seen!
I bought a single shot .32 caliber rifle once that had been in an attic for 60+ years leaning against a fat lightered piece of heart pine. It had almost settled in to the lighter by the time it was found. I actually bought 4 guns from the guy, this one was thrown in to the deal. I thought it could never be cleaned up, it had so much pitch stuck to it, but I sold it to a fellow who got it all off and had it looking great!
Wade

[Nancy-ID]

What kind of tree does "Fat lighter" come from? Never heard of such a thing

[Thomp]

I dont know where the term fat pine came from, but anyone living where they gather their own firewood, especally in the south knows about heart pine, rich lighter pine, fat pine, or pine knots,

yellow or longleaf pine a heavy tight close grain wood no longer exists that i know of. lumber industrys dont want it as it takes 100 years for a good log to develop, and thats too slow they want slash pine that they can harvest every 15 years or so.

now days lightning strikes can cause a pine tree to turn fat in the center and in the knotts where the limbs come out of the main body, if you find a dead fall pine log rotten you can tear into it easily and the center is all rich as well as the limb knots.

if your lucky enough to get old lumber from the 1920's construction you might find an occasional long leaf pine board, the caristic of the sawdust when cut is a skill saw wont throw the sawdust it just stacks up where the sawdust blower puts it, or clogs up the chute on the saw, the sawdust will repack like wood filler...

[Nancy-ID]

Very interesting. Thanks for the explaination Thomp!

[Thomp]

sorry all i got stuck in babbling mode....

[knotthead britt]

thanks verry much for all yalls help.i apreciate all the advice i can get.we do have some (verry few) long leaf lobloly pines around.tree farmers are now planting a improved lobloly.cant wait to see if it is going to have heart(fat)to it