Hi William,
My thoughts while reading your thread:

1. Is warp just an incipient crack?
2. Are shakes, warps, cracks, splits, and
splinterings basically different or are they stops along a
timber's natural drying cycle that we consider to
have gone wrong? Mother nature
may not think it went wrong.
3. You can't generalize about wood any more than about people.
Too much
diversity, even in the same log or even in its parts. Where
grown, time of year harvested, how sawn, where being
dried are just a few of the variables that plague us..
4. Actually, it's the diversity that we prize.
5, Obviously there is no best way to dry wood or we would all
be using it. The
unique solutions that you mention are just as likely to
work as many others.

You asked for any thoughts. You didn't stipulate that they had to be
politically or botanically correct... or dish washer safe! Arch

Fortiter,