From Rob Macks:
I'm curious - is this S2S or S4S lumber?
How many folks here are getting boards that are planed already? I know that 2x4, etc is surface planed and dimensioned, and once I bought some nice WRC that was surfaced from a hot tub wholesale place .
Most of the 'real lumberyards' I've used have mostly 4/4, 5/4, and 8/4 WRC - and my first step is usually to put the boards through the surface planer...which makes it more difficult for folks that don't have a planer. I guess you rip off the rough edge from the first piece if you are 'flipping' 3/4 strips? Or do you straighten the rough edge with a plane before you start ripping into the board?

The WRC available in the northeast US is kiln dried and finished on 3 sides, both edges and one surface, so jointing an edge is not necessary. Even the rough board face is not very rough. The rough face (the un-planed side) of the 3/4" cut pieces are the last through the saw.

Again, I do this with WRC because I prize the wild and beautiful grain and color possibilities available in WRC.

I don't thickness plane WRC for strips. I like seeing the sawn surface of the strips on the hull or deck, which I use as a surface indicator during sanding, to tell when the surface has been uniformly sanded.

The air dried northern white cedar I buy is never longer than 10' in clear lengths and comes as very rough boards. These must be scarfed, jointed, and planed to make full length boards for cutting strips, which I usually just cut off the edge of wide boards as strips are traditionally cut. I don't cut NWC boards into 3/4" pieces because I usually use it on hull bottoms.

Clearly your wood sources are different from mine. Is your WRC air dried?
That would make twisting and bending with a heat gun easier!