WARE MAN CUTS NICHE IN AREA FIRE WOOD SALES

WARE, Ill. -- John Smith, 73, said he enjoys his work as a woodcutter. "I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it," Smith said.

Seven days a week, he can be found outside his home in Ware, Ill., either splitting the wood or gathering it up to prepare for splitting. If he's not at his home, he said he's out trying to find wood that can be used as firewood.

For the past seven years, Smith has made a pretty good sideline business by selling firewood. He said he sells firewood to about 80 people a year.

"I can't take care of all the people who come to me," Smith said in front of his mechanical wood splitter with two piles of wood on either side of him.

One pile is the good wood that he plans to season. The second doesn't look much different from the first, but Smith says it's a bit lower quality.

"I only sell the best wood," he said. "That's how I keep all my customers."

By seasoning, Smith means letting the wood dry. It takes between 6 months and a year to adequately season wood. This much time is needed to allow the sap inside to dry.

All firewood contains water. Freshly cut wood can be up to 45 percent water, while well-seasoned wood generally has less than 25 percent moisture content.

Well-seasoned firewood is easier to start, produces more heat and burns cleaner. Experts say the important thing to remember is that the water must be gone before the wood will burn.

Quality, well-seasoned firewood helps wood stoves or fireplaces burn cleaner and more efficiently, while green or wet wood can cause smoking problems, odor problems, and possibly, even dangerous chimney fires.

There are a few things to look for to see if the wood is well-seasoned. Well-seasoned firewood generally has darkened ends with cracks or splits visible. It is relatively light weight and makes a clear "clunk" when two pieces are beat together.

Green wood, on the other hand, is very heavy, the ends look fresher, and tends to make a dull "thud" when struck. These clues can fool you, however, Smith said. He said the best way to be sure you have good wood when you need it is to buy it the spring before you intend to burn it and store it properly.

Even well-seasoned firewood can be ruined by bad storage. Exposed to constant rain or covered in snow, wood will reabsorb large amounts of water, making it unfit to burn and cause it to rot before it can be used. Wood should be stored off the ground if possible and protected from excess moisture when bad weather threatens.

Statistics show that about four in every 10 Missouri homes are equipped with wood-burning fixtures. That translates into 729,000 families who burn more than 1.4 million cords of woods each year.

Smith sells the firewood by the dump truck. He said he charges about $100 a load and says he sells 90 to 100 loads a year.

That's cheaper than some places, he said.

"But I don't want to overcharge people," he said. "I believe in being fair to everybody."

Firewood is generally sold by volume, the most common measure being the cord. Other terms often employed are face cord, rick, or often just a truckload.

A standard cord of firewood is 128 cubic feet of wood, generally measured as a pile 8 feet long by 4 feet tall by 4 feet deep.

FIREWOOD DOS AND DON'TS

There are some dos and don'ts, according to literature distributed by the Chimney Safety Institute of America:

-- It's OK to burn a little pine, even construction scraps, as long as you burn just a little and use it mainly for kindling.

-- DO NOT burn large quantities of resinous softwoods as these fires can quickly get out of hand.

-- DO NOT burn any construction scraps of treated or painted wood, especially treated wood from decks or landscaping ties. The chemicals used in cans release dangerous amounts of arsenic and other very toxic compounds in the house.

-- If the "season wood" you bought turns out to be pretty green and you elect to burn it anyway, be sure to have the chimney checked more often than usual.