I ripped down a purpleheart 1x4 to use for edging on maple ply. The
board was beautifully straight to begin with.

The last cut started closing on the back of the blade, which made things
"interesting". (Anyone have a design for a splitter to fit an old
Rockwell 9"? There's no room on the insert behind the blade.)

After a couple of days, the pieces I had ripped off bowed and twisted
somewhat--the worst was maybe a quarter inch out when holding one end flat.

Is this basically to be expected? Any ways to minimize/avoid it?

Chris