Twist

I had a bit of a scare on Saturday.

I started sorting through the wood for the table and board after board was twisted beyond use. What is twist, you ask? A tree is wet when it is cut down. After "rough-cutting" the trunk and larger branches into boards using a sawmill, the wood must be dried. During the drying process, the wood wants to change shape. Experts know all the tricks to keeping wood straight during the drying process, but yours truly is a rookie. I'll spare you the details of all the mistakes I made, and get straight to the punch line. The wood was twisted. Check out this picture:

The board sitting on the table is about 3 feet long. See how the corner closest to the camera is a good 1/4 inch off the table? Yup, that's twisted wood. If I press down on that corner, the corner furthest from the camera would come off the table.

Normally a little twist is no big deal. You just run it over the jointer:

The jointer will shave off "high points" to even it all out. No problem, right?

Not so fast. I'm looking to use six foot long boards, and even a little twist becomes a lot of twist in a board that long. Shave off the high points and you won't have anything left. Hence, my worry.

But have no fear! I dug down lower in the pile and found some boards that look like they'll work beautifully. I'll know for sure in a couple of days when I have time to actually run them over the jointer, but I think we're going to be okay. Whew!