Often, wide boards with beautiful cathedral grain are significantly cupped. Visually, the board would be a perfect selection for a tabletop or desk, but it's too cupped to use.



So, how do you flatten the board but retain its visual integrity? Follow the five steps below. (For a narrow board 8" or slimmer - depending on how wide your jointer is - you can start on step 2.) And remember, once a board is properly dry its tendency to distort will abate. 

Use a table saw to rip the cupped board down the middle of its cathedral grain. If it won't be obvious, mark the pieces so they can be glued back together at the end of this process.	Face joint the two pieces of wood. Joint the same face of each separate piece. Continue this operation until there is a flat surface over most of each board. Remove the same amount of stock by performing the same number of cuts on each piece.	Move to your planer and begin surfacing the stock. Continue until you have a smooth flat surface on both faces of each board. Because you face jointed the boards, their faces are now parallel to each other.
Square the edges of the saw cut to exactly 90°. You have now re-formed the two sections of your wide cupped board into two perfectly flat boards with prepared glue-joint edges.	Glue the pieces back together, taking time to ensure that the grain matches at the glue joint, the glue-up is flat and the edges are properly aligned. You now have a flat, stable, wide panel.
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