Flattening Spalted Maple board

[Doug Shepard]

I picked this up from that e-place that shall remain nameless. It's 15/16 x 10 x 16+. It was advertised as spalted hard maple air dried to 12% M.C. and surface planed on both faces, and with unjointed edges. UPS delivered it today and there's a noticable bow from end to end. Haven't measure it yet but I'd guess maybe as much as 5/8". Just eyeballing it, it looks pretty good across the board - just bowed along the length. I think maybe I need to spritz it with water and weigh it down to try to flatten it out? I'm guessing they didn't face joint first and just ran it through the planer? Or maybe it just moved that much after milling and shipping? I'm sure it will need some face jointing eventually. Just wondering if there's a way to flatten it some first to reduce the amount I'd have to remove to get it flat. Other than that, it's a pretty cool looking piece of wood.

[Alan Turner]

I'd just sticker it in your shop and see what happens. You can try some weight as well, but my guess is that little if any of the bow will be lost. If the thickness is 15/16", and the bow is 5/8", then the math says you will have a pretty thin board if you flatten it in the conventinal way. I don't know what you had in mind for this piece, but would veneer work, possibly for a jewlery box? Or cut into two 8" pieces, possibly you will save much thickness, again using it for smaller projects or accents. It is a pretty piece, and I hope you can find a good use for it.

[Corey Hallagan]

IT is a cool piece of wood for sure!! Hope it flattens out for you.

Corey

[Steve Wargo]

You could always slice it into veneer and have little waste. If you weight it and sticker it after resawing it then it should flatten out nicely. Especially if you're cutting it into 1/16" slices or less. Just a thought.

[Doug Shepard]

... would veneer work, possibly for a jewlery box? Or cut into two 8" pieces, possibly you will save much thickness, again using it for smaller projects or accents. It is a pretty piece, and I hope you can find a good use for it.

That's pretty much what I bought it for. I had in mind making some banding out of it, but the box I'm planning at the moment would need the whole 16" length to span the box width. I made some smaller boxes years ago with spalted maple and kingwood and like the way those came out. This piece had tons more spalt lines and contours than what I used back then and I spotted this with about 30 mins left to go and couldn't resist. My other vague notion was just to try and follow the bow while slicing the veneer? I'll probably being putting pieces of this board to use for quite some time on various projects.

[Dan Forman]

My other vague notion was just to try and follow the bow while slicing the veneer? .


I was thinking the same thing, wondering what the best way to do that would be. I have about zip experience with such things, but have some bowed boards I'd like to try it on.

Dan

[Alan Turner]

I think my approach to slicing this would be to use a single point fence.

[Keith Christopher]

This top I made for a table I did the same thing and it worked wonderfully. I sliced it in veneer.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b179/goyde/ht1.jpg

The clamps are there to make sure it doesn't fall off my table. :)

[Dan Racette]

Alan said what I was gunna say! If you got any punky wood, make sure you soak it with some cyanoacrylate. Sometimes that can help. I am looking at some punky cherry right now!