I was given about 550 feet of 7" mahogany crown molding. The "Giver" knew I was remodeling my old 1910 home that has 9 1/2 foot ceiling and guessed this molding would look great. And he's right, except the stuff has a lot of bows in it. Not twisted, just bowed in places. It's fairly old (probably 30-40 yrs) and has never been used-- just stored in a barn.

My question is, can I pull the bows out of this stuff as I install it? I've installed a lot of regular crown for myself and friends and regular crown doesn't scare me. But this stuff is as hard as a 2 X 4 stud and has about that much give to it.

My walls and ceilings in the house are 1/2" drywall over solid 1" X 8" tongue and groove boards. So anywhere I drive a nail or screw you hit at least 1" wood. Could I pre drill this molding and draw it to the wall with wood screws and then putty the holes. The molding will be painted. Or should I beg my friend to take it back and store it in his barn? I can see this molding being beautiful once I got it up but I could see it taking me a month to do one small room.