The old foreman's trick at a Rochester shop still sticks with me

Back in 2007 I was green as hell working at a custom shop outside Rochester. The foreman, this older guy named Pete, watched me struggle with a warped oak panel for like 20 minutes. He just walked over, wet a rag with hot water, and wiped the concave side before clamping it to a bow. I thought it was stupid until it pulled flat overnight. That was the first time I realized wood has memory and you gotta work with it, not against it. Anyone else pick up a weird trick from an old timer that you still use every week?

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kelly.charlie21d ago

That part about wood having memory hit home. My buddy Dan works at a cabinet shop in Buffalo and he had this old timer show him the same trick with a steam gun on a warped table leaf. The old guy would mist the concave side and let it sit with weights on it for two days, not just overnight. Dan tried it once with a customer's antique door that was bowed so bad it wouldn't close. He did the steam thing, clamped it, and the door was dead flat in 48 hours. Customer paid him double just for saving that door. He still talks about that old guy like he was a wizard.