Reasons a log will twist when split?

[The Gopher]

yeah i think you can work with.

HHB can have some extreme twisting too, but is fairly easy to see on the bark.

[Buckeye Guy]

What you mean it is not supposed to look like that !
I thought that was the way it's supposed to be !
 
It will be fine !!
Show us your bow when you are done !!
Guy

[tgtmatt]

I'm going to debark it within the next few days, cut the straightest part out then seal it and straighten it as much as I can.


Thanks guys. I'm going to start stocking up on as much staves as I can so they can season while i'm in college for the next four to eight years. Lots of time for good wood to season:)

[dbb]

I've heard one theory that even in places where there's not much wind and a tree is growin up dead vertical it can still twist due to the leaves trying to follow the sun as it crosses the sky.Dunno if it's true, but just think how your neck twists when a pretty lady walks past
Del

Oh its true alright! I live in northern sweden and in the summer the sun just dips at the horizon before it rises.
Thats a bowyers curse because everything that doesnt grow shaded is twisted like a pretzel.
Just 500 km south that isnt the case(they dont have the "midnight sun" there)

/Mikael

[dwardo]

Its like a pair of in ear headphones, hear me out. 
We always wonder how they "always" get so tangled up rather than just being neat n tidy.
Its because there are more combinations of tangled than there are of neat n tidy. I guess trees are the same just poor odds for a nice flat plane. But we live in hope

He says sat here with a load of prop twisted and knotty wood.

[JW_Halverson]

I have talked with foresters about why one ponderosa pine tree is straight grained as an arrow and the tree next to it is a barber's pole and they have never been able to tell me.  I proposed it was wind, but then they pointed out to me that the tree I was looking at grew up in a crowded forest. If one tree would be twisted by the wind all would have been twisted!  Who knows.

Whatcha got there shouldn't be too bad to unscrew if you do it 8" at a time with a heat gun after it has cured.  If you take it down to near bow dimensions, you can even steam sections and unscrew it enough to bind it down to a 2x4 to cure out.  Just be sure to seal the back!

[tgtmatt]

Thanks for all the information everyone.

I might split the larger piece in half long ways to thin it out because it is fairly wide as of now and I think I could get it down a bit. But I'm not sure yet, I'll figure it out over the weekend.

[gianluca100]

What about cutting 2 shorter straight pieces and splice them together?
I used this method with extremely twisted elm and it worked fine.

ciao,
gian-luca

[Jodocus]

I've heard one theory that even in places where there's not much wind and a tree is growin up dead vertical it can still twist due to the leaves trying to follow the sun as it crosses the sky.

I get the impression that the dead straight pieces are almost always twisted. I cycle down a long avenue of chestnut trees daily, and thei're all, every single one of about 500 trees, twisted the same way around. Opposite to how the sun goes.