Extreme wood movement on cutting board - help!

[Matt Day]

My roommate and his girlfriend made pizza tonight while I was working away downstairs trying to finish up painting. I went upstairs to find they used one of my cutting boards (end grain, about 1 1/4" thick, from the Wood magazine plan) as a hot plate for the pizza. They made a lot and had a whole pizza left over, which happened to be the same size as my cutting board. Unfortunately it sat on there for about 3 hours until I found it.

The middle of the board has raised about 1/4" from the temperature. Can I do anything to get it to move back?

[Jamie Buxton]

The board didn't deform from the temperature. It deformed from the humidity. The wood absorbed water from the pizza. If you just let it dry out, it will flatten back out. It may not become perfectly flat again, but it will be considerably closer than it is now.

[Matt Day]

It's been about 2 days and it's gotten better, but far from flat. At least with the bow up it doesn't rock. I'll probably give it a week then I might plane back to flat, we'll see.

[Ian Abraham]

It's the humidity thats done it, dont get carried away sanding it flat, you will just end up with a bow the other way after a few weeks.

You could set it on a damp towel with a lamp warming the top side. If it wasn't winter you could set it on the lawn in the sun. Or even sit a streaming hot pizza on the OTHER side. Whatever you do you need to let the moisture even out between the two sides.

Cheers

Ian