Good points, all.
The original boxes are "finished" on the outside; stained and oil; but the inside is left in the white and rough-as cut.
Perhaps the cuts relieve enough internal stress that warping is reduced- almost like a honeycomb sturcture???

Thanks for the tip on the Formby's.

The cuts do prevent warping, and if it had been an insert you could also have added more relief cuts from the bottom. It is a honeycomb structure in a way, the difference is that you relieve stress instead of absorbing it.

I would suggest that you try some thin penetrating oil on a piece of scrap wood and see how it turns out. It really helps preserving the wood and prevent moisture damage, and chances are that the appearance will be just like untreated wood. A thin oil like pure tung oil will soak right into the wood and virtually disappear, so once you have wiped off the excess and left it for a day or two it won't show on the surface. You will probably see the color changing to a slightly deeper tone, but it won't really look "finished".

Steinway cures their wood outdoors for 2 years (if I remember correctly) before using it. Most other quality piano builders do something similar.

Many woodworkers store their wood outdoors in open sheds, it's supposed to cure the wood in a more natural way than doing it the "quick and dirty" way in a kiln. I can only assume that it takes a certain climate to do that though. Not sure if it would work around here, where the humidity can vary from a hot and steamy 95% to a cool and dry 35% within just a few days. Still, some like to do it, there's plenty of people storing in in old barns and corn cribs.

Hot and humid NC won't be a good place to do that; but I can think of some places that would be great!

Interesting, in that Hickory and Ashville are areas of major production of furniture!

I worked in Texas as a service man for a furniture store in Austin. You'd be surprised (maybe not) how the difference in humidity between where a piece was built and where it may wind up, influences the ease with which one can open a dresser drawer!

In my small town in Colorado there was an old wood bowl turner I got to know well. He slowly dried wood logs in a closed shed and checked the moisture content with an electric meter..it gave him the percentage of moisture. Don't know the numbers he preferred but it was likely pretty low.

It don't think it's supposed to be very low, the purpose is to reach a moisture content that works well in the product's final environment (like in a house). If the wood is too dry, it will try and absorb moisture later on, which can lead to cracking and warping. Same thing can happen if it dries too quickly.

I used to work in a woodworking plant (made semi-finished cabinet parts for some of the large cabinet manufacturers) and we had our own kilns to get the moisture just right. I wasn't directly involved in this, but IIRC they steamed the wood first to get an even moisture content throughout the boards, then they used hot, moisture controlled air to gradually dry it in a controlled manner until they arrived at the desired number.

Another suggestion I can make for wood grip source material is hardwood flooring. Places like Lumber Liquidators often run sales of short lots that are too small to do a whole house, and in some cases even too small to do an 8x10 room. I installed hardwood flooring in the bedrooms of our home about 10 years ago. I managed to find lots small enough to do each bedroom in a different hardwood. I used Canadian Maple, Engineered Bamboo, Amber Oak, and American Walnut for the rooms. That is what we call the rooms now... by their flooring type.

You can often find this type of flooring in varying widths and lengths... It is about 3/4 inch thick and often with great grain showing. Just plane it to your required thickness. I think we paid about a dollar or less per square foot because the lots we bought were discontinued. If you want a sample of my remnants to see what it is like, let me know. I will send some to you for the postage.

Hardwood flooring is usually grooved on the back, but I believe it only runs about 1/3" of the thickness so I should be able to get the 3/8" I need. I actually visited a hardwood floor place last week, but they said that they didn't stock anything more exotic than oak and hickory. There's not many stores like that around here, so I probably need to call a few installers and see if they have leftovers.

I appreciate your offer and walnut flooring might be something I can use, but I'm afraid the postage would be pretty high. I can get ripped and sanded walnut for about $3.00-$3.50/foot, so it's probably not worth it. I just found out that our local cabinet shop has some interesting leftovers at the bottom of their piles, and they have promised to take inventory next time they're moving lumber in their warehouse. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that there will be some good birch and beech. :thumbup:

For sure on humidity effect; but NC furniture mfg. has moved to China!:(