Slab Flattening
Why should you flatten a wood slab?
- To ensure uniform thickness throughout the work piece
- Corrects imperfections caused by the drying process such as cupping, twist, or bowing.
- Ensure flatness from one end of the work piece to the other
The process
When you have found the perfect slab wood for your project, the next step is to ensure it’s level from end to end. During the drying process the slab can be prone to stresses within the grain causing cupping, twisting or bowing. These imperfections can cause the work piece to have undesirable conditions which can all be corrected by flattening. Here at Furman Millworks, we have two ways to flatten slab wood depending on size and grain pattern. We can provide a flattening service by the conventional method of using a planner or our state-of-the-art CNC.
Things to know
- Moisture content of wood will be checked upon arrival. We require the moisture content to be 12% or less to ensure wood doesn’t move after the flattening process.
- If the slab has severe imperfections (cupping, twist, bow) we recommending cutting the piece to the rough size of your project beforehand to ensure maximum thickness is achieved.
- The top and bottom side of the slab will be flattened to provide a parallel surface. Minimal sanding is required to remove tooling marks from the slab that are left as a result of the flattening process.