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I have some rosewood back plates - approximately 8x22 that are warped.

I am looking for suggestions on how to flatten them.

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Dampen, wrap in ulu foil and iron them flat, sticker.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

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Thank You and Best To All

Do not iron if there is wax present. Hot wax will flow like water into the wood and never come out. It may compromise future glue joints and some finishes.

I did the following once on a set of BRW with 1/4" backs. However, in hind site, I am guessing that you could just put the pieces into a heavy duty plastic bag with water for a couple of weeks. Anyway, here is what I did. Needs a metal free container to submerge the wood. For the sides, I made a rectangle of 2.4 on the floor and draped a heavy duty plastic in it. For the backs, they fit in a fiberglass utility sink. I put some weights into plastic bags to hold the wood under water. At first no change and you could not force them flat. After what I recall as at least a week, the wood finally just relaxed to its original shape after sawing. I then stickered and weighted it and it has been fine.