Last year I spent about $300 on propane to keep my fur shed warm while working. I'm going to invest in a wood stove this year.

I flesh about 1,000 coons per year, so I've always got a big ole' pile of coon fat lying around. Does anyone here burn coon fat to keep warm? I've been told that it burns real hot. Can a pot-belly stove handle the heat?

Ive heard it burns hot too, I was thinking about making some fatwood sticks to start fires this fall, but I dont think I would burn solely fat, If it does burn as hot as Ive heard, will you be able to stand the heat in your fur shed?, just fleshing coons keeps me pretty toasty.

I have heard of it, yes.

i burn it in my outside wood furnace..it stinks like h$ll..but it gets rid of it...but i burn everything,carcus and all....

I burn a lot of coon fat and any other animal fat I get, and it does burn very hot. Do not put but about a gallon at a time in your stove.

I do as aaron does except just the fat...burn's well!

I am glad I don't live down wind of you guys.

Wood then Fat, then Wood then fat... Couple handfulls at a time!

The fat smells like BarBQue being cooked. It isn't really all that bad. I never try to burn tainted fat, it is always fresh stuff. I can't burn much each season, so I can't even make a dent in what I have to get rid of. It does help for startinga wood fire each day.

For God's sake, don't use much at one time. Like Don said, a little bit'a do at a time. Years ago I had some kids fleshing coons and possums. They had seen me throwing fat in the wood stove in the fur house. I went to bed after a fourteen hour day, the kid's finiished up and loaded the stove down with fat. Set the fur house on fire. We smelled the smoke, woke up and finally got the fire out, but half of the wall burned down.

Crowkiller

Our local fur buyer burnes coon fat. he just scoops it up and tosses it in when he does a coon. always warm in his shed.and no special ill smells,just smells like a fur shed.

had a wood heater in my old fur shed, and would add some coon fat when it was real cold or wanted to heat it up quick.

like Don said, smelled kinda like ya bar-b-queing something

like crowkiller said, don't put to much at once, till ya kinda git the feel of how much it will take.

It's really awesome. If you think about fat on a chemistry level it's pure energy....people rendered fat to make oil to burn in lamps....this is just the unrendered stuff.

It burns HOT. Back in college we heated our house with a wood burning stove that was in the basement. The basement was also my fur shed so that's where I fleshed everything. People would yell from upstairs, "you're fleshing coons, Huh?" They could tell because it got so much hotter upstairs than burning just wood.

Problem is you can't fill up the stove and burn it all night. I'd go through 10-20 coons worth of fat in a couple hours. Given I thought it was fun and I got the furnace as hot as I dared. Give it a go. Personally I like the smell, it is like bbq.

I vividly recall putting coon fat in the wood burner in the fur shed when I was a kid helping dad put up fur. I mentioned it in this story I wrote about helping dad in the fur shed....
http://www.trapperman.com/trapperman/TTpaulmemoryoffurshed.html

we burn it but not just the fat alone.

we add a little bit to the fire along and it does burn hot.

itll run ya out of the shed if ya aint careful.

it also has a very distinctive smell when burning.

if ya add to much it will actually melt and run out of your stove making a real mess.

Paul, i got the idea from a Dobbins book, don't remember which one.

Amish man who puts up coon uses it all the time.. Just a small shovel full once in awhile and hes good to go. He only uses the fat.

One night we were skating on a pond after dark.

I lit a 5 gallon pail of frozen coon fat to give some light rather than lug sticks for a fire. It burned for a long time, smelled like bbq.

put a metal pan about the size of a bread pan ,just make it out of 1/8 steel and add some fat to it when empty ,build the fire behind it

Thanks to everyone for your input/advise. I picked up a used pot-belly stove last night. Should do the trick.