# Straightening out kinked wood



## ChrisZA (Aug 22, 2012)

Hi all

Did a search of the forum and generally online and haven't come up with much in the way of help for my predicament.

I picked up a piece of Wild Olive Wood that I was hoping to turn into a magnetic knife holder for the kitchen but I discovered that it has a kink in the end and a very small twist at the one end. The piece is 50mm x 50mm x 800mm (~2" x 2" x 32"). Feasibly, the magnetic knife holder would only be about 2"x 1" x 18" so I could cut it in half and try from there?

















The pics aren't great but you can see the kink at the one end.

Without sawing down the piece a LOT, how can I go about getting as straight a piece of wood as possible?

Thanks in advance.

Chris


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## SeniorSitizen (May 2, 2012)

Wood with internal stresses has a mind of its own and often stays that way. Try extending the kinked end off of a flat surface until you have your required 18" remaining on the flat surface to see how far off that 18" will be from straight. That straighter portion will be easier to make right. It may even change some again when the worst end is cut off. There just aren't any guarantees with wood.


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

+1 with SandburRanch.

Find the section closest to being flat and cut the 18in from that.

You may need to sand against a flat surface, but even if you get this flat, it may still move again.

Another option is to cut a thin strip e.g,. 1/8in and glue this onto a piece of plywood, and glue pieces of the olive wood at the end so that you do not see any plywood.

You can then embed the magnets into the plywood.


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

How dry do you think the piece is? Ready to work?
Lee Valley sells a "false edge" made by ShopFox.
Two weird pieces of aluminum extrusion with thumb screw clamps on each side.
On the one side, you clamp in a known straight edge. That you run along the saw fence.

In the other, bigger, wider side, you clamp in the "banana" that you want to cut.
One pass on the table saw and you get one good straight edge on your board.
Then the ends and the other edge are fast to fix.

I've just split some cedar shake blocks into 3/4" x 6" x 24" boards.
Very rough of course, but some rot, some taper, etc.
One pass each on the saw for one straight edge and I can move the project along.
I need about 4" wide, I expect to use local cedar (free) and 22" will be fine for a long,
skinny box.


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## ChrisZA (Aug 22, 2012)

Thanks fro the tips everyone. :thumbsup: Have an idea of what I'm going to do and I'll see about getting to the workshop this weekend to start it up.


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## Lola Ranch (Mar 22, 2010)

Lumber seldom comes perfectly straight. Dressing or milling is a big part of what woodworking is all about.

Once you cut the piece to the rough length it will look a lot straighter. If you do not have a jointer then you could use a hand plane to straighten it further. If you don't have either of those then you can use the table saw as a jointer by ripping a little off while holding the concave face against the fence. If you rip the piece down the middle you will probably have two pieces each of which will bow in opposite directions. That is job security for us woodworkers. That is why I try to cut all my pieces to a rough size but close to the final dimension then mill it square before making the final cuts. 

Bret


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## ChrisZA (Aug 22, 2012)

Lola Ranch said:


> Lumber seldom comes perfectly straight. Dressing or milling is a big part of what woodworking is all about.
> 
> Once you cut the piece to the rough length it will look a lot straighter. If you do not have a jointer then you could use a hand plane to straighten it further. If you don't have either of those then you can use the table saw as a jointer by ripping a little off while holding the concave face against the fence. If you rip the piece down the middle you will probably have two pieces each of which will bow in opposite directions. That is job security for us woodworkers. That is why I try to cut all my pieces to a rough size but close to the final dimension then mill it square before making the final cuts.
> 
> Bret


Thanks for the info!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong; movement in wood is primarily due to changing moisture content. If a piece is ripped and finished up all in a small amount of time (say, an afternoon) and then oiled or sealed, will it still move?


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## johnmark (Jul 21, 2012)




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## Lola Ranch (Mar 22, 2010)

ChrisZA said:


> Thanks for the info!
> 
> Someone correct me if I'm wrong; movement in wood is primarily due to changing moisture content. If a piece is ripped and finished up all in a small amount of time (say, an afternoon) and then oiled or sealed, will it still move?


yes,

Bret


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

If the wood has settled down to its Equilibrium Moisture Content, 
it shouldn't move until the environment humidity changes quite a lot.

Wood finishes certainly delay the exchange with the air (in both directions).
All that says is that yes, it will move, just takes longer.

For example, this is a serious issue with any fine, stringed musical instruments.
Spruce runs maybe 12-14% EMC. Indoors in the cold of winter, MC might go as low as 5%.


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## SeniorSitizen (May 2, 2012)

I've lived to a ripe old age and that video is the first time I ever saw a fire, with twigs as fuel, that didn't smoke, :laughing: very strange.


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

Dead spruce and pine twigs burn like they are gasoline.
Birch bark is greasy enough to burn after 2 months under water.
Not much reason to make a whole lot of smoke until early July (bugs.)

My brother is part of a team who build serious replica stone-age bows and arrows. Big money. To formally join, you have to prove that you dropped a deer with your own equipment. The flint-knapping phreaks will donate a few heads (and just which prehistoric style would you like?)


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

Small update: Most of the 10-12 x 3/4" boards that I split out of the shake blocks had maybe 1/2" - 3/4" taper over their 24" lengths. Picked the straightest edge to clamp up in those ShopFox things. Buzz thru the table saw to prune the tapers off. Whole job (clamp/unclamp every one of them) might have taken 30 minutes. Nice.

The block cutters had skinned the bark and sapwood with a LogWizard, fast and brutal. If anything will rot/go buggy fast, it's the sapwood in western red cedar. There are some YouTubes of the LogWizard. Not quite as explosive as a Lancelot in an angle grinder.


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