Bamboo blanks

[gerryr]

Has anyone tried these? I know CSUSA has them in their catalog and I've seen a few on eBay.

 

[wood-of-1kind]

I have both dark and light bamboo blanks. While the material turns well, I have found that the grain is a bit plain. Not my favourite wood laminate to turn but just MHO.

-Peter-[]

 

[Dario]

I for one never tried it and probably never will.

I know Billy (alamocdc) and Monty tried it...you may want to ask their input.

 

[alamocdc]

I've not yet done a bamboo laminate (got some from Peter), but have turned actually bamboo (got it from Monty). It turned quite well actually. Like Peter said, the laminated bamboo blanks look a bit bland so I will probably use them in glue-ups.

 

[chigdon]

I agree with the CSUSA blanks. I have seen someone on here who turned to cross grain bamboo that was beautiful. If I remember right it was from a Bamboo laminate cutting board they bought at Walmart! Go figure -- there are pen blanks everywhere if you look.

 

[ldimick]

I turned one for a Christmas gift. It was a bland looking pen. I added a pick guard inlay and it turned out very nice. The recipient is form Thailand so it was more for sentimental reasons than apparent beauty.

 

[wood-of-1kind]

An example of BAMBOO blank. The box on which the pen is photographed is also bamboo with the exception of the cherry lid. Bamboo is nice to turn but light on the ooooooooomph scale IMHO.

<br />
[8D]

 

[Monty]

I've turned several pens from bamboo. Nothing really spectacular, but can be different. Here is a pict of the blanks. Note that they are not laminated but the actual bamboo stalk

I've made Atlas and Designer styles for these blanks. Can't locate the picts right now, but if I find them, I'll post later.

If your intrested in trying some, email me and we'll work something out.