I have a folding rosewood and maple chess board that has a slight bow along one of the edges at the fold. I’ve just clamped it and placed it near the furnace in an attempt to take out the moisture and unwarp the one side. Any other suggestions would be most welcome.
The clamping sounds good but I would steam it instead of drying. You want to re-bend the wood while it is wet. Think of how bentwood furniture is made.
But good luck, it sounds like this would be hard to get right. For one thing, you want to encourage the bent side to unbend, rather than the still-flat side to acquire the bend of the other side, so maybe you could include something else that will stay straight (small metal i-beam??) in the clamps.
I’m with Artichoke, you want to increase the moisture before you bend it back. Steaming it would be the best you could do, but you probably won’t have to go that far, just a little more moisture would probably help. After you’ve got it moist then bend it back and forth a bit, overcorrecting the bend.
The purpose of the moisture is to lubricate the fibers in the wood, repeatedly bending it helps loosen them even more. Once it dries it will be much more prone to hold its shape. Check out some articles on wood bending for verification and maybe some more ideas.
On the assumption that moisture has caused the wood to warp, I’m going to try drying the wood in a press to see what happens. Sort of like an old tennis racket press only with the clamps over the bow and not at the ends. I have it in a dry place near the furnace downstairs. I’ll let you know what happens before moving to the next step–steam.
Personally, I’d try steam first – dry heat could cause the wood to crack.
Brian, if there’s a company near by that makes custom wood cabinets, you might contact them and ask for recommendations. They may even have a steam press to do it.
Actually, I think both sides are right. In curving wood you want the whole piece soaked so that it can warp. But soaking a flat board will cause it to warp in further unpredictable patterns. (Flatly drying out risks splitting as anjiaoshi suggests. Or, if a slatted/glued board, will cause gaps to form in between the ranks and/or files.)
But in unwarping wood you want controlled moisture such that the wood wants to warp back to the correct side. For examples:
home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-re … iture6.htm
thestuccocompany.com/mainten … 07877-.htm
woodworkforums.com/f11/unwarping-wood-89479/
AFAICT you would definitely want to add moisture. But you would want to add it in a controlled fashion.
Hope that helps!
Prevention is the only cure. The wood has lost moisture at the warp. The problem is not the rosewood or maple, they are veneers but the base wood. The finish area seals the top from water loss. You can bet the bottom is unfinished and is at the mercy of changes in humidity. Depending on how long of time you had it before it warped, the problem could be caused by poor drying conditions in manufacture or storing in a dry place in your house. In the winter with the heat on the humidity can drop to 4 % in your house.
More likely it has picked up moisture and expanded much like a door in humid weather. I have it opened flat in the furnace room. The bow is now slightly less. we’ll see what developes.
Whatever moisture caused the wood to warp is likely already long gone. Most likely just one side of the board got wet, caused the fibers on that side to swell and bend the board slowly out of shape. Drying it more won’t undue the stresses the board was put under. You can actually cause the same effect by drying the board unevenly.
Since it sounds like you’re not quite willing to wet the whole thing, you might try just setting it on the floor (assuming the floor is flat enough), then placing another board on top of it, then putting as many heavy things on top of it as you can. It will eventually hold its shape, even if it’s just clamped, but you might not live long enough for that to happen. And by trying to dry the board out, you’re just lengthening the process at best.
If you’re still intent on drying the board: if your house is like most, your furnace room probably isn’t the room with the least amount of humidity as it’s probably in the same room with your clothes dryer and/or in the basement. So you might just be getting the thing hot.