You're right on the money, @jamie_adams. I saw the same thing at my sister's place last winter. She swore by those logs, but her fireplace started smelling funny. We called a sweep, and he pulled out these same glassy sheets you described. The sweep said the chemical treatment can actually bake the creosote into that dangerous stage three form. It made a believer out of her, and now she gets a proper cleaning every year. That visual proof is what finally changes people's minds.

Yeah, the "tripled in eight months" thing sounds wild, claire872. I read an article that said it usually means starting from a tiny base number, which makes the jump seem bigger than it is. It's possible, but the context matters a lot.

Man, I was the king of "it's probably fine" for way too long. I once ignored a filter so long the metal basically turned into a weird, sad sculpture in there. Took me an hour to chisel it out, felt like a real genius that day.

Pre-wetting the leather a little bit can help stop that annoying shrinkage.

Only FOUR meetings? That's it?