Thought I’d watch a short video while I have my breakfast. In a surprise twist to my original plans, I find myself dedicated to the outcome of four pieces of rough cut pine half way across the world. Hello from Australia and thank you for some breakfast based entertainment Wilson Forest Lands.

This experimental series with the 4 slabs should grow and eventually rule KZfaq charts as it deserves

I am a woodworker myself and I can tell you this: The distortion the boards went through while drying free of constriction was the result of the shrinking of the fibers of the wood according to their orientation in the board. Wetting the board again to the same humity as sawmill time brings them back to the orginal straightness (if cracks haven't already formed in the board thus altering the continuity of the fibers) Drying the boards while constricted in a position different from the natural one is going to accumulate tension within the board. To a certain extent the wood structure can handle those tensions, but they want to be released somehow and they would naturally try to release a little bit every time the board gets through a humity change by getting distorded again. Now, about the usage of that lumber and how the tensions would release accordingly: minimum to no size reduction: if you just use them as they are or just slightly reduce them by size and : 1 get them fixed in a flat position by nails but have them get through big differences of humidity in the course of a year: tension will release partly by distorting again pulling the nails in time and partly by forming cracks in the board 2 get them fixed in a flat position by nails but have them not get through big differences of humidity in the course of a year: tension will release in a small part by distorting again pulling the nails in time and mostly by forming cracks in the board 3 get them fixed in a flat position by screwd but have them get through big differences of humidity in the course of a year: tension will release mostly by forming cracks in the board but also try to release by getting distorted again. Since the screws won't give getting pulled either they hold and all tension get released by the cracks or (and this happened to me) the board will snap the screws and get distorted 4 get them fixed in a flat position by screwd but have them not get through big differences of humidity in the course of a year: tension will release by forming cracks in the board. If you try to rip saw the boards by any significant amount tension will release by bending the wood either arching against or away from the saw, and potentially suddenly snapping along grain whel little wood remain to be cut resulting in dangerous working. (I say from experience, some oven-dried 50 mm larch can accumulate a lot of tension...like a 10 cm cut board arching 3 cm while sawing it from the larger board) Your best use for such wood are shor pieces which will tend to be straight even if you let the boards dry freely and so accumulate no tension within. Second best is to have them fixed by screws in a stable situation on the wet side of things.

I love how everything we think we found a better way to do things, our European ancestors had already been doing it for centuries

I agree with you; more people can benefit from this information if they just know about it. I do it from time to time because wood just naturally bows when it dries due to knots and whatever. That’s why the boards on the top of the stacks at the lumber stores are bowed and the ones underneath are mostly straight. My grandfather always stacked his lumber on sawhorses or cinderblocks then covered it with sheets of tin (or whatever he had handy) and put more cinderblocks (or whatever he had handy) on top of the tin to keep it from blowing away and keep the boards straight till he was ready to use them. A bucket of sand or dirt would serve the same purpose. I appreciate your helping others see a practical way to keep from wasting materials. Theres sooooo much waste in the world. Especially of wood I think.

Another Australian here. I bought some 30x70mm (roughly inch and a quarter x 3") pine from a big hardware chain. Chose the straightest lengths I could find, surprisingly very straight. Left them a few months in the room I was going to build a divider wall in, laid flat, no sunlight, and every one of them had twisted in that time. Quite a substantial twist, to where I can't use them as they are. I'll give this a try rather than spending another couple of hundred dollars. Thank you for this helpful video.

Love the experiments, watched them all. The next simple experiment should be getting the boards wet again and let them dry on their own just like you mentioned. Looking forard to watching the next one

I watch your videos because you have a good mix of fire wood , milling. And forestry ! You are a good land owner and take good care of your land.

This is what I been looking for: no-nonsense, useful videos. Thank you for keeping it simple, you got a subscriber for that

Glad to see the update. I had a hunch they'd straighten out for you. I had 5 large eastern white pines cut, and then milled them into 4/4 wide plank (some are 17" wide). I ended up with about 3,000 board feet. I stickered and stacked them right away, and covered them with a tarp for a season. Then I re-stickered and stacked them in a humidity controlled basement. Two years later, I re-stacked them, getting rid of the stickers, and they were all straight as can be. I've been using them for various projects over the past 5 years and I don't worry about them warping at this point. They're very stable.

I think you should rip saw one and video tape how much the wood moves as they are cut. I believe there is tension in the wood.

Man, thank you for doing this experiment and for showing the results.

I believe you forgot to add this video to the Playlist, just a reminder. Thanks for these experiments, I will be waiting for the next one!

Hip, Hip, Hurrah, the twist has gone away!

G’day mate, thoroughly enjoyed your videos on your efforts to straighten lumber. You mentioned the comments that you received from folks that bend wood via steaming etc. For your information a lot of people tell you it’s tension within the wood and they are correct but here in Oz we just call it the Timbers memory, quite a few years back I built a hut out of stringy bark (an Australian hardwood tree, I debarked the trees and scraped some of the shaggy bark off of them with a sharp shovel, I used the bark to light a small low heat fire the size of the sheets of bark about 8’ x 4’ I then used a few short pieces of star picket posts driven into the ground with others attached to make something to suspend the sheets of bark on. 5:53 I laid the bark onto the frame and allowed the smoke and heat to affect the bark, probably only about 10 minutes or so for each sheet of bark they softened and laid flat on the frame they started to smell of the resins, quite nice actually and it was also a good clue that they were almost ready to remove from the heat, I then laid them onto a flat surface and as you did I put sticks between the sheets to allow for airflow around the cooling sheets. I left them for a few days ( I probably didn’t have to though once they’d cooled). The end result was I had beautiful flat timber, I had changed the timber’s memory from being I’m wrapped around a tree to I’m now a flat sheet, I built a hut 40’ x 20’ and used the sheets nailed to a frame, the hut stood for about 10 years and the bark sheets never twisted, when I pulled the hut down I had the sheets stacked on the farm, in the weather and again they never shifted, from time to time I’d put one or two cut to shape in a horse float excellent gripping surface for the horses, well those sheets laid straight and true for over twenty years. I later discovered some of the really old homes in parts of the region had used this same method as roofing for their homes and the timber was still in excellent order after over 100 years of use. So it’s really just a matter of reprogramming the Timbers memory into being what you want it to be. I’d love to see you try this as it’s an awesome technique and quite simple and very fast. Cheers Keep up the good work.

Nice. Useful. No frills, concise.

Nicely done! Thanks for taking the time to run this experiment!

Nice! Really good results

Great video! I appreciate that you're doing these experiments and that you're sharing them. It's one thing to hear something and a whole different thing to actually see it. It takes a lot of the mystery and uncertainty out of it. So, thank you for sharing this!

Thank you! Oh and I also subscribed because of the no nonsense presentation and because you didn't ask to do so. Keep up the great work.

great video. thank you for the simple and straight forward info

I stayed from beginning to end of the stream of experiments, learned a bunch, and really enjoyed the presentation. Many thanks for taking the trouble, and good luck with your channel, I think it's great. One day I would love to have land to work with wood as you do, and I'm inspired by the visual treats. I love the fact you pop up saying 'one more quick thing' at 5:00, and just casually whip out the moisture meter in front of possibly the most beautiful backdrop I've seen in years.

Hey ol Buddy . Another great video. Very informative and interesting on the status of the crooked lumber. Please keep up the enjoyable videos. Looking forward to the next one.

That’s great to know. I’ll have to try that for the wood coming off my mill.

Thank you for this very informative set of videos. I unfortunately have a lot of boards that I thought were going to be ruined because we took 6 feet of water after getting flooded by the Trinity River Authority here in Goodrich, TX. This gives me hope that not all is lost. My lake house is fortunately 9 feet off the ground.......

Great experiment, great vid. Thanks!

Good experiment , I’ve done it a few times and it worked , but once the wood got damp it started twisting again. I think the ones that do that have a lot of stress in them. Thanks for sharing

Great success!!!! Thanks for the update!! Stay Hydrated and Have a Safe Day

I wasn't sure what would happen and am very impressed. It will be interesting to see if the boards retain their shape in the future.

KUDOS! So much WORK! Thank you!

Great experiment

Knots placement, and size can create these specific tensions, especially when exposed like this on any cut wood; just distinctly displayed through the length/surface areas. Beautiful pine!

This video is rather timely. I've been wondering how the great lumber straightening experiment went.

great practical testing

Wow! I agree.

Ty for this video!

Looks like you achieved desired results Michael! I think there are high end instrument builders that use this process, or something similar. I know Gibson has a Limited Run Les Paul that they soak the wood for a certain time length, they are 4 grand, so definitely high end.

Makes sense when you brought up the steam bending application

Sticker and stack and add weight. Nothing new there, but this video is GREAT - showing that indeed you can straighten a crooked board. Subscribed! :D

I'm glad I came across this video. I have driven myself nuts trying to get straight and flat boards for a few years now. I do a lot of woodworking as well as tree falling. A good friend of mine has a Woodmizer saw like you do. I cut some pretty good sized spruce and tamarack trees and ocassonaly I will take some eight foot long logs to Gary and he will saw them up for me. The trees we cut are always dead, but it takes years for tamaracks to get dry inside once they die. So I bring the boards home and sticker them and put hundreds of pounds of weight on them inside my shop that is heated and has plenty of air circulation. I have even put small fans in place to move air around the stacks of boards. I check them after several weeks to a couple of month later and get real low moisture readings. I will un sticker them and stack them up for later use and when I go to use one the are warped to heck again. I have NEVER soaked boards with water like you are doing in this video, so I am going to do that the next time I get some boards from my buddy and give that a try. Wish me luck. Thanks for this video, it is appreciated very much. Jim Baker City, Oregon

if you use them for something like a fence where they are only supported in a couple spots they will start warping back to the twisted state after the first rain. the only way to keep them kind of straight is to use them in places where they will be anchored down in multiple places along their full length and even then over time will find a say to distort in places where they are not anchored. i've got fencing boards that i have straightened multiple times then hung them in the heat of summer fencing boards that were straight but by the end of first winter the boards that started out straight stayed straight but the ones i straightened had reverted back to their distorted state, one of them even pulled the nail out of the cross support it was nailed to as it curled, warped wood is warped wood.......

So cool

They will continue to twist and distort over time. You can't beat the physics. And if you let them get soaked again, they're going to dry just as twisted as they had been. Of course, using them in a project where they are nailed or screwed to straight lumber will help keep them straight. Lumber isn't homogenous, so when it dries the parts containing more water shrink more than the parts containing more resin. You can't get around it.

Thanks for the update..i did watch the other videos on this topic and was wondering if there would be an update..😁👍

Phew, the suspense was killing me 😁🤣

I’ve been wanting to try salvaging oak pallet wood from work, so this has been super interesting. I wonder if I can fix cupping the same way.

Nice!

Good channel subscribed.

In the old days kiln drying was just air drying with sticks in between the wood. I have a book somewhere showing bunks of wood drying in this manner and calling it kiln drying. Whatever. I know from my friends milling that we air dried the same and then stacked and stored without air space. Over time he milled enough and dried enough for his friends smallish barn. He still hasn't built it. The top layer has twisted a bit but the rest are perfect. Always store flat and weight on top and they are ready to use.

Was at Lowes once to get some lumber and me and another guy were digging through the stack for a few straight ones. After hoping through about a third of the pallet he turns to me and said "if I was building a boat these would be great" . He was so right went through over half the pile to find my 4 and his 6 pretty sad.

Two Brothers beat me to it -- I was going to comment on the "Turbo-Wilson Mode" of unloading the stacked off cuts. Another likeroo.

Constantly have this Twisting issue with Pressure treated Pine. comes in soaking wet and is guaranteed to warp. The only thing I have found is stacking with stringers in between and weighting them with old 4x4's. I've even had to side clamp rows to keep side bowing from happening.

On kiln dried vs air dried, I once read an interesting point that kiln drying is of course not permanent. Once kiln dried wood is placed in a different environment it will come to equilibrium with the new moisture levels. So I quit being concerned with my shed dried slabs, I have the time to let it dry, and I’ve had no problems with any of the furniture I’ve made.

Hi ,in the sixties I was in the Navy In Chatham dockyard In this Yard they built Nelsons flagship The HMS Victory In the Yard they had a Mast pond as it was called It was a long flooded dock and the mast timbers were left in it for a time before they were used this stopped them from bowing Then taken out and seasoned slowly

Great Video: Very Informative! Well filmed and edited also. Thank You - John 3:16

I sure could use you around here to stack lumber in your "fast" mode. I can't believe how fast you unloaded that trailer. Oh, good job on straightening the boards. 😉

Delicious.

I'm coming friend

What a cool experiment. I wonder if you just used several ratchet straps, it would save a lot of work moving the weight... Just a thought.

One nice experiment would be the effect of surface touching the board. This is, probably one source of twisting effect. You let water get out from wood freely on one surface (air contact) and much slower on the opposite surface (supoort surface contact). By adding those slats you let air contact on the bottom surface making it as free to evaporate as the other surface. A nice test would be letting it dry hanging, perhaps from a nail on its top, see how bad it would bend under pure effect of gravity (as well as wood fibers).

I'd imagine the wood movement from here forward would depend on how much grain runout/torsion is in the board. Seems like it wouldn't change much if it's handled correctly

Worked out great. I was gonna suggest a steam box , but yah that would be a lot of work to set up.

You are pretty funny. Keep making videos.

It would be interesting to see if they will remain that way in the next couple of weeks, now that the pressure is off. Maybe you could do several different experiments at the same time.

I've heard something about straightening boards getting them wet and weighing them down on a flat surface to dry back out. Haven't tried doing that myself. I wonder if this would work on boards that have a crowned side. or the narrow side having a curve from end to end. I don't remember what that's called. Maybe a bow? When they kiln dry boards I think they stack them on something flat, and separate them so they're not sitting flat on top of the boards under them to allow for air circulation between them. Interesting video. A successful experiment.

Build something with them and see if they revert to their former shape after installation and maybe affect structural integrity.

I think a key is to keep wood stacked until ready to use. whenever I leave unused individual pieces around they start to warp.

Once the boards have straightened. Then preserve the moisture content by sealing them and the board will not warp and retain its shape. Its not great for every application as the high moisture content can defeat some uses but definitely will help utilize some of the warped material.

Have you thought about taking a stack of crooked wet boards of the same size and compressing them together with clamps? Maybe they'll average out

Usually when the mills kiln dry their lumber they seal the ends so the moisture leaves via the face of the board and not the ends.

Would soaking them down with linseed oil have the same straightening effect but perhaps keep them from drying out again?

Now that they dried again and are relatively straight, isn´it a good idea to seal the wood with varathane or some product like that to keep moisture out ? Thanks gor the experiment.

This stickering is precisely how new milled lumber is stacked for air drying over a long prriod of time yo prevent drying movement.

They are straighter than anything off the rack at Home Depot.

What are the small horizontal wood support strips on your sawmill for? I just put logs right on the metal supports but now you have me curious :)

Fixing the boards in place for their intended use might stop a lot of the movement anyway?

I wonder if this would work for warped pressure treated lumber..?

Just curious, what do you do with all that slab wood, firewood?

More experiment please! What happens if they are cut? Do they spring out again?

Man Just look at those offcut slabs as he puts it down on the other trailer.. They dried straighter than the actual lumber.😂😂

Most likely they will warp and twist again over the next few weeks as they continue to dry not weighted down. The tension in the wood that caused them to warp is still there so I wouldn't want to try ripping them at all. They'll spring apart and bind on a table saw.

I think this method has been used in shipbuilding, but in the opposite direction. Wood is wet, and then shaped and curved to what is needed for the design of the ship. I don't know if that method is still used, but it has been historically.

Question is will they warp back with time despite having dried this way ?

Soaking them in water will straighten them out but when you let it dry they will warp again. However, I think after weighing them down dry if these boards get rained on or the sprinkler hits these boards, I suspect that they will want to warp again.

I wonder what would happen if you covered them in wood glue (PVA) whilst they were wet. I wonder if the glue all through the fibres from the wetting out of it in water would be enough to pull against the tension in the wood as it dries. Then flip and repeat. I have some warped plywood but I don’t think that would quite work the same 😄

Wish I had that trailer of off cuts! Yeah knots are problematic.

Thanks for the video. I learnt alot. 👍👍🇮🇪

We need an update to the update.

I know this was a while ago but my guess is they will come out flat but, given enough time and change in humidity levels, if left alone, will warp again.

Can you still straighten a wood that have been warped for over 10 years? I went scavenge hunting and found wood that is gray, dry, and warped for years.

I'd love to know what happens when the wood gets wet again, like more than just a sprinkle of rain wet.

Good thing you didn't use spring water again. Lol

Maybe dry one board left on a modified bbq rotisserie. So its moisture escapes “evenly” lol maybe? lol

I am a old sawer and if you want straight boards you must sticker the wood properly. The stickers must be straight and in a straight line from top to bottom. My guys would get mad when I would tell them restack a bundle just because the stickers were not in line. I have 20 years experience, the customer wants straight boards and that's what they pay for 😊.

Those are not planks for furniture, but good for paneling. And nails and/or screws will hold them in shape and place - if they get wet and dry again. Without prop- structure, they will bend again in moisture-cycles. So, not very interesting to put them in water again or whatever. I mean, to proof, that they will stay in shape nailed to a structure, would be the better test.

If you keep them to completely dry, they will twist again . . what you should do is keep that right level of moisture in by sealing them Too dry will twist them again !!

I would be interested how it behave after a half a year, laying without weight on it (protected against rain).

what happened to 2x4 , over course of wetting and drying it seems had walked away from experiment

Bend them into barrels. And see if they hold up their shape.

Use them before they get wet again, once fixed in place, and water proofed, will be fine.