Warped Wood Advise Needed

[Raymond Fries]

I am making a Boken (Martial Arts Sword) for a Christmas gift. The rough-cut piece is on the left in the picture. The wood is hickory. It is 1" wide,
1 1/8" tall, and 40" long. The board warped in my garage :( before I got around to cutting it.

Ironically, the warp follows almost the exact path to shape the Boken that starts to bend about 18" back from the tip. At the tip, the warp is just less than 1/4". If I cut along the pencil line on the right, the shape will be symmetrical. Then, I would need to trim more away from both sides to get it to the finished size.

My question is whether to scrap it and buy a new board. I am concerned that if I cut the Boken from this piece, it might straighten out and then the warp will go the other way. Any thoughts on what it will do if I finish it and it goes in his house?

I have zero experience with how wood moves with moisture and just want to have a nice gift for my friend. Bokens are not supposed to be finished so maybe they need to be kept in an environmentally controlled place and not a garage.

Thanks for your suggestions...

[David DeCristoforo]

Go ahead and make it. It is extremely unlikely that the piece will straighten out. If the curve is close to what you want anyway, consider it a gift... that much less work to do and you will be using the "natural curve" of the wood.

[Bill White]

That will let you see what change will take place.
Bill

[Wade Lippman]

I built a Philippine mahogany chest about 5 years ago.
I cut one board into 4 pieces to use as frame sides. 3 were straight, but the 4th was warped. I had no more wood, so I tried forcing it into shape and steaming it when forced, but it persisted in the warp.
So I incorporated it into the design. It hasn't changed since, despite being in an unheated cabin that whole time.

YMMV, but I think you can probably rely on the warp staying.