switch cane?

[Strongbow88]

I went down to my dads this past weekend and cut me some ,what i think is switch cane. And I am having trouble straitnin it. How do you straitin the nodes.
                                           thanks

[Pat B]

Danny, You will probably have to use heat if there is a drastic bend. What I would do is bundle them and place them in a dry area to cure. After a month or so start using heat to straighten first the nodes and after they have cooled completely, the inter nodal areas.  I like to wipe a little cooking oil where I apply heat to prevent scorching while straightening, and I use our gas range for the heat source.
   You might try hand straightening a little , a couple of times a week and bundle or lay the canes on a flat surface between straightening sessions. By the time the month curing is up they will probably be fairly straight.     Pat

[Strongbow88]

thank you for you help I have been straightening  them every day and keeping them in a bundle. I have mostly been straightening in between the nodes with no heat since they ate still green.
I was planned on waiting for them to dry soom before I tried to straighten the node. I was lust not sure about the nodes because they bent in several different ways in a little space. But Im sure I will figure it out.                     thanks again
                                            Danny

[Hillbilly]

Just heat it until it starts to "sweat" and gently bend. The nodes are harder to bend than the internodes, and take a bit more heat and caution, but it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Once a cane shaft is dry and heat-straightened, it stays straight much better than most wooden shafts. While they're half-green and drying, though, they can get to looking like lightning bolts 

[Pat B]

After the major bend is out of the node areas, I like to reheat them, one at a time, and roll the nodes on a hard surface with a hardwood block to compress the nodes instead of sanding or scraping them. This will take slight bends out of the node area also.      Pat