With the arrival of cold weather especially snow this past weekend heating up the firewood market, it helps to know what to look for before stocking up for the rest of the season.
Chris Koenig's advice: Ask questions, know what you want and don't accept anything less.
Chris Koenig sells firewood that he cuts and hauls to Lawrence from southeast Kansas. Koenig sells seasoned firewood, like the ash and oak shown here. Koenig, a freshman at Pittsburg State University and former Lawrence resident, unloaded some wood Monday at his parents' home on Stone Meadows Drive.
"It's worth paying the price for decent wood," said Koenig, who has sold firewood in the area for nearly five years. "Find out if it's split. Sometimes people will try to rip you off with round pieces."
Koenig, who sells firewood for $125 a cord, said that some questions were relatively simple. Be sure to ask how long the wood's been sitting, for example, because seasoned wood burns better than green, fresh-cut logs.
Oak burns longer and produces a lot of heat, he said, while ash, hackberry and walnut produce a big flame, "which is nice for a fireplace. Woods like walnut, cherry, and hickory smell really good, too."
Any wood will burn, but the denser and harder the wood is, "the greater amount of heat you'll get in return," said Bill Wood, ag agent for K-State Research and Extension in Douglas County.
Dense hardwoods are the best fuels because they burn longest and produce the most heat as measured by British Thermal Units, or BTUs. Some dense woods include Osage orange (hedge), black locust, hickory, oak, honeylocust and sugar maple.
Some hardwoods are abundant in the state, especially hedge, mulberry and black locust, Wood said. Such woods are most appropriate for wood stoves, but not always in the typical home fireplace.
Your carpet might not like it.
"Unless you burn these in an enclosed fire box, you'll end up with a lot of sparks and embers," he said.
Oak and ash generally work best in fireplaces, he said. Softer woods especially evergreens such as pine or cedar should be avoided because they can clog up a chimney relatively quickly.
Dirty chimneys have been more commonplace this winter, with its relatively warm weather.
"People are making fires that aren't as hot, so there's not enough heat to burn off residue in the chimney," said Clay Sherwood, owner of Spa, Pool & Fireside, 1033 Vt.
Sherwood suggests that homeowners have their fireplaces inspected at least once a year, to be sure they haven't been damaged by settling or obstructed by birds' nests or squirrels.
6News consumer reporter Karen Palermo Bledsoe can be reached at 832-6335.
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