Question about wood grain on a deck

[Dick Snyder]

We recently had a deck built from cambara. The deck boards are flat sawn and so they are nice and smooth. Some of the boards on the top of the railings seem to be quarter sawn and I am seeing "flake" - i.e., the grain rings are raising up making a rough surface if you rub your hand the wrong way (into the grain). Can I sand those down? Will the grain just raise again if I do so? Maybe I should use a scraper after sanding to really flatten the grain though maybe with it being outside in water, it will just pop up again. Any advice from this group will be appreciated as usual.

TIA.

Dick Snyder

[Leon]

Well hind sight is always 20/20. How recently? Is it still under any kind of warranty?

If it is raising up now, it always will.

Alternatively you can replace those particular boards with Ipe. Ipe is a very popular decking material that does not splinter once smoothed and has about a 50 year life expectancy w/o protection.

[Dick Snyder]

I had considered Ipe when first doing the deck but the cost was VERY high. I don't think I want to mix Ipe and cambara. Perhaps I should replace the sections where the grain is raising with new cambara where the wiid was flat sawn. Need to do some more research on this vis a vis warranty.