Turning Bamboo

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Minotbob

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Oct 15, 2009
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197
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Minot, ND
I am getting ready to move back to the US in a couple weeks and my landlord has offered me some BIG bamboo. These are pieces about 6' long and 4" in diameter. I'm not sure the wall thickness is thick enough to turns pens or not. It looks to be about 1/2 inch.

What would you make if you got a hold of bamboo like this? I'm at a loss. I really don't want to pass it up and probably won't, but I'll be darned if I know what I'm going to do with it.

I went back down and measured the largest diameter piece. On the large end the wall thickness is .92" and on the small end the wall thickness is .55". The diameter on the large end is 4.6" and 4.2" on the small end.

Any ideas?
 
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Mark

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Oct 12, 2009
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Pottstown PA
IMHO, I'd likely take and cut it into long slivers, match up the opposite sides and glue/laminate it together in some fashion to end up with a usable blank. I'm sure there are other ways of dividing up the bamboo, but that's just my thoughts at the moment.

I've only worked with the pre-finished style of bamboo flooring so far.

Good Luck. It should be fun...
 

dgscott

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Aug 17, 2008
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933
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Portland, Oregon
I've made a couple of pens from bamboo. It's kind of "splinter-y" when you turn it and it kicks up a fair amount of dust, but it sands down nicely, wears extremely well and many of my customers love the fact that it's a sustainable resource.
Doug
 

kirkfranks

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Nov 23, 2006
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689
Location
Salisbury, MD, USA.
Since you mention in the first post about moving back to the US I am concerned you are looking to import the bamboo with you. Might want to check what regulations would be involved.
 

bruce119

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Joined
Jul 30, 2007
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2,978
Location
Franklin, NC, USA.
I have a lot of Bamboo just like that it turns just fine. It looks kind of plane when finished unless you can cut it at the knuckle then you can get a little figure. Also Bamboo takes a burn very nicely. I do put burn lines in some of the Bamboo it looks good against the light wood. Bamboo sells out quickly for me here in Florida.

Have fun with it.
 

bad

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Apr 20, 2007
Messages
348
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
If I had that much bamboo, I'd look at cutting some of it up into small squares and making a segmented bowl or vase. Add in some contrasting accent wood and you could have a spectacular piece. Yes there's a lot of planning and a little math (trig.) to do if you don't already have the pre-calculated tables but I think that the end result is well worth the extra effort. IMHO
 
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