Watching a bunch of tutorials online, I keep seeing people skip the grain direction check on their book board and it's going to cause problems later.

I mean, if you don't line up the grain to run parallel with the spine, your cover is going to warp like crazy after a few humidity changes, which I learned the hard way on a batch of 20 journals I made last spring.

4 comments

4 Comments

noahs822mo ago

Ugh, that's the worst. @wyatt_green, I feel your pain, it's like watching a slow motion disaster you can't stop. My first real woodworking project was a picture frame that twisted itself into a pretzel for the same basic reason.

jamesmason1mo ago

My buddy built a whole coffee table before letting the wood settle, ended up with a permanent bowl shape in the middle.

wyatt_green2mo ago

Those 20 warped journals in my closet are a sad, expensive monument to skipping that step.

price.alice1mo ago

Saw a woodworker online who said warping is basically the wood's memory fighting back. It wants to be a tree again, and bad prep lets it try. Letting stuff sit in your shop for a week before you even touch it seems to be the real trick.