Crossed Saber Holder design help needed

[Jimmy Williams]

My brother is in the military and has two sabers that he wishes to display. His design idea was to have something that could be placed on a mantle or top of the entertainment center. He wished to have the sabers cross in the middle like the US Calvary emblem.

Below is a very quick sketch of what we were thinking of doing.

He prefers a dark wood for the material and I was thinking of walnut. My question is will a piece of walnut that is 6"wide" by 42" long and 1" thick tend to warp, twist, move... or should I consider using MDF and covering it with a walnut veneer? I prefer not to go the way of the veneer as I have no experience with it but this may be my opportunity to.

Should the walnut tend to move over time, is there anything I can do in my design to help prevent that?

Like I said, this is a very quick and crude example of what is planned but before I got to detailed I need to figure this part out.

Thanks for the help

[Don C Peterson]

Any wood will move, but as long as the wood is dry when you cut it, any movement on that piece shouldn't be a problem.

Movement happens mostly across the grain and at 6" wide, there won't be much of that. Further, movement becomes a real problem when the shrinking or swelling places stress on joints and it doesn't appear that you have any, other than the two pieces that hold the sabers up and those shouldn't pose much of a problem.

[Jimmy Williams]

Thanks for the reply. I figured the wood would want to move seasonally, which shouldn't be a problem in this design. I was more concerned with the wood wanting to twist over time and not lay flat. I am thinking that as long as I don't resaw the board, I won't be releasing any internal stresses in the wood so it should remain relatively flat.
I have one other idea in my head on how I might go about the base but haven't put it in sketch-up as of yet. It would provide for more of an elevated base that would give the piece more umph.

Thanks again for the reply.