You might want to order your poplar shafts one spine range over what you need. Just heat straightened some of the 3R's poplar shafts for a friend and noticed they had tools marks that needed sanded out. Shafts appeared to be well seasoned and somewhat crooked. Believe me, you're not going to straighten these shaft by hand compression alone. Broke two right off the bat using heat so you might want to get their moisture up higher before appling heat or maybe use a little steam. When shafts are this hard to straighten then you know they're well seasoned.-ART B