My board is bowing.

[Dale Cruea]

I have a piece of old walnut that has been in my shop for at least 6 years and the guy that gave it to me had is since the early 70s.
The woman that gave it to him said her hubby had it before he passed away and that was 30 before she gave it away.
The board was 12" wide and 1 1/2 thick in places.

Really beautiful color.

My problem is that I have one piece about 27" long and 6" wide that has some crazy grain in it.
It was hard to hand plane but I got one side flat.
When I started on the other side the middle started raising.

My question is:
How can I stop the middle from raising. It looks to be about 3/16 to 1/8" bow.
There is still enough thickness to clean up however I don't know if it will keep bowing.
I know it is internal stress and not humidity because it happens immediately and not overnight.
This is likely air dried lumber.
I don't have any more wood left and I have to have this piece to finish my project.

[Jim Koepke]

Is the piece held using a vise or just a stop?

I have seen articles on countering the bow by setting it on supports and putting a bit of pressure on the upward bow to push it back the other way. This takes a lot of time.

Hopefully others have ideas.

jtk

[Dale Cruea]

Jim, thank you for the suggestion. It got me thinking that I had the board against a stop held in place with a stop on my vice. I think I was putting pressure along the board causing it to bow.
I put it cross wise in my vice and the problem went away.

DAC