Hello: Is there any use for bamboo in furniture? I’ve seen some laminated bamboo cutting boards that were so dense I thought they were mineral. Could it be made into some kind of sheet goods? It is an easy to grow and a very common plant is some parts of the world.
KDM
Kenneth Duke Masters
The Bill of Rights
December 15 1791
NRA Endowment Member
LEAA Life Member
CRPA Member
The Bill of Rights
December 15 1791
NRA Endowment Member
LEAA Life Member
CRPA Member
Replies
I've seen Bamboo flooring, tongue and groove. A nice light blonde, very hard and durable.
Duke -
Bamboo is one of the more sustainable timber products on the market. Although as you may know, it's not a "timber" product at all but rather a member of the grass family.
Bamboo plywood is indeed available. A bit on the pricey side but quite nice looking. There are two varieties, one called 'horizontal' and one called 'vertical. At least that's what they're called in this market area. The horizontal consists of about 5/8" wide strips of the bamboo, perhaps 1/8" or less thick as the face layer, sometimes on both sides. These are milled and edge glued or, I don't know, maybe just glued up as individual strips on the inner plies.
The inner plies can consist of other types of wood as in the case of some so-called engineered bamboo flooring I installed a while back or can be bamboo itself.
Vertical bamboo plywood consists of 1/8-3/16" wide strips that are in some products the full depth of the sheet. In the case of my flooring material which was the vertical type, it was made with about a 1/8" thick surface layer of the narrow strips.
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT try to use prefinished bamboo flooring for woodworking projects. The aluminum whatever finish on this stuff is harder than the gates of hell! I went through three belts on my portable belt sander getting it off a little panel I made out of some of the scrap flooring. I once tried to pass one of these pieces through the jointer to remove the finish ..... good by jointer knives!
Bamboo is really nice to work with but I found it very, very unforgiving with respect to tool sharpness. Crosscutting requires extremely sharp blades. It's quite stringy, is the only way I can describe it. Tearout is abominable if you don't have a really sharp and well tuned saw. I wouldn't try working it with hand tools since it's quite dense, plus my hand tool expertise as far as close tolerance sawing is quite lacking. Your mileage may well vary.
It's rather expensive around here. But you can sometimes find sales on the web for flooring and perhaps plywood as well. I don't think it will hold up very well outdoors since I had a couple pieces in my shop that became quite mildewed before I addressed the humidity situation. But it makes beautiful doors and such. I understand it's pretty stable but I haven't made anything with the sheet goods to offer any opinion on that.
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
Bamboo has lots of silica in it, that's why it's rough on tools. There's a weed called horsetail that I heard pioneers used to clean pots and pans down by the creeks--it also had lots of silica in it--natural Brillo pads!
But I still don't understand; is there actually sand in the wood or some kind of moly-cules of silica or what exactly is it that dulls tools on Bamboo and Teak? Any other woods do this?
Confused, KDMKenneth Duke Masters
The Bill of Rights
December 15 1791
NRA Endowment Member
LEAA Life Member
CRPA Member
I believe its actually molecules of silica in the structure of the grass--especially the surface. It's not like particles of sand. And I think bamboo has this "problem" because it is a grass and not a wood. I don't know of any woods that have silica in them (other than those that have been "petrified"). I think teak is just very hard (like ebony?), but don't think it has silica, but, again, I could be wrong.
Several references on wood properties I have looked at just casually on the internet, list high silica content in numerous woods. Assume this is through mineral uptake as part of natural growth process. Teak in particular has a high level of silica from what I have read and experienced. I have always found Teak is interesting to work with. Although I have worked with it on only a dozen or so projects, I have noted that it cuts like butter due to the natural oils in the wood, but dulls cutting edges fairly quickly, odd non-intuitive contrasting properties.
Good to know about teak and other words having silica--sorry about passing out bad info. Like the news woman on a Detroit radio station, Miss Information.
I saw the new "rugs" made with strips of bamboo bound with cotton on the edges and thought they'd make great tambours for like a rolltop desk.
At Breaktime, where I usually hang out, I mentioned that diatoms had silicaceous exoskeletons and someone said they didn't know there was a non-carbon-based life form. (?) (I know a lot; too bad so much of it isn't true.)
Hey Danno,You were part right. There are diatoms with silicaceous exoskeletons. There are also varieties with calcium carbonate skeletons. Both are carbon based life forms, so no "Andromeda Strains" found yet.Tom
Edited 6/22/2005 4:49 pm ET by tms
teak has silica but is oily and so it cuts but dulls an edge on power tools-not on hand edge tools though. Anegre is even worse for dulling tooling and for the same reason and it is without the oils that help teak. Aloha, Mike
Hey Duke,
Bamboo has really found a home in traditional longbow manufacture.
We use bamboo backing, made of chord sections of large diameter 'Moso' bamboo, and also veneers made from engineered bamboo flooring. There are proprietory 'action-boo' products that are used by bowyers.
Even the wrapping of the handles is often the bamboo 'cane' used in chair manufacture.
As Dennis said, it is very hard on tools. It has a high silica content that is very abrasive. I have had to replace files used in bow making because of bamboo's abrasiveness.
Tom
Thanks, guys Bamboo sound like an interesting material. Might make an nice contrast as a panel in a frame and panel cabinet door. Sorry about your jointer knifes Dennis but you may have saved others from the same fate. When you say a material has high silica content does that mean it has sand in it or is the silica on the molecular level? What would you use to finish this stuff?
KDMKenneth Duke Masters
The Bill of Rights
December 15 1791
NRA Endowment Member
LEAA Life Member
CRPA Member
Duke,
....might make a nice contrast in a panel and frame door".
That is exactly what I thought when I saw bamboo sheets at a homes exhibition in N Zealand.
The stuff I saw was made in China, in woven sheets suitable for wall panels and flooring,and they also had accessories like skirting boards and stair nosings machine moulded from it. They said it worked like a hardwood,but tungsten cutters were best.
I can see myself using it for roll top desks, interiors of drinks cabinets etc, even drawer bottoms. It is expensive.
you can get more facts on it on http://www.wovenbamboo.co.nz
Duke -Sorry to have mislead you .... the damage was done to the jointer knives by the finish on the pre-finished flooring I was attempting to reclaim into a panel project. Bamboo itself, as far as I know, has no silica content as with teak. Using what little actual UN-finished bamboo plywood that I have, I've not noticed any extreme problems with respect to dulling tools any more than other hardwoods. Most web sites that I've researched do, however, claim that bamboo is harder than eastern rockhard maple.If you plan on using raw unfinished bamboo plywood you shouldn't, or at least I wouldn't expect you to experience problems with messing up your tools............
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
Hey Dennis,The last longbow I made was made of bamboo backed, bamboo flooring. Normally, my most usefull tool in bow making is a card scraper, but on the bamboo flooring I could only get about four strokes before it was too dull to use. It even dulled a rasp to the point that I'll be replacing it.The flooring I used was unfinished, so the abrasiveness was in the material itself.Tom
Tom -I initially thought I could scrape the finish off those pieces of prefinished flooring but like you, the burr was history in no time against that aluminum/titanium/cobalt/zirconium .... whatever-ium stuff. But, once through that finish with a belt sander and 10 grit paper (grin) I also noticed the scraper went south on me in no time. I just chalked it up to a bad sharpening session on the scraper but perhaps it was indeed the raw bamboo itself.I know you mentioned some time ago that the nodes in this stuff are like chunks of granite with respect to hardness. Do you think the intermix of the nodes in the flooring is what takes the edge off scrapers so quickly?...........
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
Hey Dennis,No, I really think it's the silica in the material (I can't call it wood). While I have knocked teeth off of my toothing plane on the nodes, the rasp was worn down by the entire length of the bow I was using it on.My lasting impression is that bamboo is horrible stuff to work with, but it has functional properties like nothing else. I guess I'll be suffering through more abuse from bamboo in the future.TomI guess I should add that the way I'm current ly using bamboo flooring is to resaw it with a carbide bandsaw blade, and then reduce it with a drum sander. Abrasives can be your friend as well.Tom
Edited 6/22/2005 12:24 am ET by tms
Hi Tom -I think you said or implied that you used bamboo for a long bow. Have you ever tried it on any kind of bending project?I've made a few bread knives that consist of a turned handle and a blade holder that's bandsawed to a particular profile for mounting the cutting blade. I've built a form for bending this blade holder portion and have success with ash thus far (only in the concept stage at this point) but I'm wondering how well bamboo would fare in a bending situation.For the ash trial I ripped 1/8" thick strips that are laminated into a 3/8" section. The radius for the bends is pretty severe at 1/2". Watching grain runout carefully I can do this with ash by merely soaking the strips in water for perhaps 30 minutes, no steaming. When the bread knife blades are secured to the blade holder section of the assembly I put them in a jig to flex the holder somewhat so when the blade itself is attached and the knife is removed from the jig, the holder puts the blade in tension. Can't have a sloppy bread knife now, can we! Thus the interest in using bamboo for this holder part. As it seems to excell in working as a wood spring, if you will, it seems a natural for this application. In the past, the gluelaminated projects I've done have had little springback using ordinary Titebond glue. I realize you probably have to address the glue choice rather carefully in bow making but have you tried the Titebond and if so, how well does it work?...........
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
Hey Dennis,Bamboo is very bendy stuff, but unlike steamed Ash or Oak, it stays bendy and doesn't harden up. So if you want a ridged frame, Bamboo might not be the right choice. Of course, with enough lams and strong enough glue, you might get away with it.Re. Titebond glue and bowery: Most bowyers do not use PVA glues, as they tend to creep under continuous strain. More commonly used are urea formaldehyed glues like Urac, and Weldwood. Some use resorcinol or epoxy.The one use that bowyers use PVA glues for is attaching skins, like snake skins, or fish skins, to the back of bows.Tom
Hi Tom .....Didn't stop to consider how much more springback there would be with bamboo as opposed to regular wood fibers. I think if I decide to experiment with it I'll use the urea glue approach. ...........
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
I know that in Japan they used to use broken glass as a scraper to work bamboo.
Hey Dick,I know of folks that do that as well. The theory is that, as in garnet abrasives, a new edge is formed as the old one is broken (knapped) back. You don't sharpen the tool as much as form a new edge.Never really got the hang of it. It's definitely a different skill set,Tom
Look up Plyboo on Google. I am a cabinetmaker on Maui and we use tons of it. Its bamboo all the way through and very hard stuff....harder than maple. Its also made into boards, comes in 3 different shades, takes glue well, and is generally considered beautiful here. Additionally, there are companies growing and treating the culms (tubes) and machining cope and stick joints for furniture making on the Big Island of Hawaii. Without treatin it gets powder post beetles. Oh, I almost forgot, not all bamboo is hollow in the middle, there is timber also that is solid and some that grows to 10 inches in diameter, 130 feet tall in 5 years time. I will go find a link and post it........aloha for now, Mike
Duke. here it is:
http://www.plyboo.com/
way cool and yeah it takes carbide tooling not unlike a lot of woods. Aloha, Mike
Here is a bamboo floor I installed.
This is called "Carbonized" bamboo - I think the bamboo is "cooked" until it darkens. They also sell "blond" bamboo - very light like Maple.
Building this room (and 2 others), up until recently, has kept me out of the woodshop for 3+ years - a fun project however.
Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
I was in China early this year.. Saw some about 1 thick (25MM?).. Something like 4 foot by 5 foot... It sure was HEAVY!... Some were brand new... They were using it for cement forms! Dang.. The stuff looked good enough to panel a emperors house!
EDIT: Panels that is...
Edited 6/21/2005 12:30 pm ET by Will George
Edited 6/21/2005 1:36 pm ET by Will George
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