Bamboo

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MrKugelschreiber

MrKugelschreiber

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Apr 6, 2015
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Has anyone turned Bamboo? If so, CA finish? Easy to work with? Takes a good CA finish? I have been asked to make two Fly Fishing (PSI) pens with Bamboo. I am going to do a CA finish because they have asked for decal work to be done on them. It is for an American Heroes kids whom just laid their father to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Besides earning every medal in the military, he was an avid Fly Fisherman and wood worker, so this should be perfect for them. Comments or suggestions please. Thanks in advance.
 
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Yes, bamboo takes CA ok.

I recommend that you turn your blanks a few thou undersize, give them a few coats of CA, sand them down to quite a good shine, and THEN put on the decals, after which you should apply more coats of CA. . But give the decal adhesive a couple of days to cure before you do the top CAing.

There are threads here about applying CA over decals ... would be a good idea to look them up.
 
Thank you sir! I've been doing decals so that's not a problem...really just curious on how the Bamboo turns and takes CA. Sounds like it will be a winner. Thx again.
 
Bamboo will tend to split along it's grain if you get a catch .... not terribly strong in that direction. A crosscut style of bamboo will be the most difficult and challenging, as little splinters of the woody fibers flake off while you turn .... I highly recommend you don't put your fingers anywhere near it till it's been sanded very smooth. Stabilizing as you go with thin CA may help.

For the typical spindle blank, where you are cutting cross grain .... as long as you dont get a catch you should be just fine.
 
I went to the hobby/craft store and picked up some lengths of bamboo to turn. It turned very well. I just picked the straightest pieces, drill down the core, and turned from there. Took the CA nicely IIRC.
 
Are you working with natural pieces of bamboo or the manufactured full size blanks?
 
I would say that marmotjr is working with lengths of giant reed or bamboo that is very small ... they are extremely similar in nature, being giant grasses with woody stalks and hollow section cores.


Now, most people who work with bamboo for pen blanks are using a manmade product that takes sections of bamboo (the giant chinese variety that grows a hundred feet tall ... the ones you see in japanese and chinese movies all the time), and sections them as though to make chopsticks with the tiny pieces. These pieces are then faced and arranged and press laminated for making cutting boards or other modern objects.

Most people, when speaking of a bamboo pen blank, are referring to this modern version. You could MAKE such a version yourself from the natural material, but it would be quite labor intensive compared to running down to wal-mart and grabbing a ready-made bamboo cutting board to cut up and glue to the size you want for your pen blank.
 
Skie_M said:
I would say that marmotjr is working with lengths of giant reed or bamboo that is very small ... they are extremely similar in nature, being giant grasses with woody stalks and hollow section cores..
Click to expand...

Yes, they are not much more than twig sized. But they have a beautiful grain when finished.
 
We have some large stands of that stuff down here in Oklahoma ... they are an invasive species introduced from Southern Europe quite some time back, originally to be used as a source material for reed-based wind instruments and wickerwork.

The seeds of these giant grasses are 99.95% sterile .... only a VERY few may actually germinate and sprout. They grow and reproduce by creating nodules in their roots, to create offshoot plants that are nourished by the parent plant and continue to grow in a raft-like structure.

To get them to re-plant in a new area, the best method would be to cut several such root nodules away from a parent plant that already have a few shoots beginning to sprout, and plant them in the new area. They like very moist areas, especially near streams and roadside ditches that collect a lot of water ... their usual method of spreading is to have several root nodules and sprouts wash away together during a storm, to be deposited in another area downstream.

They have very little in the way of native competition and pests, being more of a silica-based plant structure (similar to rice stalks) ... it is thus supposed that the true source of these plants was originally the Far East and the Orient (China), though the most common assertion is that these came from the Southern Europe and Middle Eastern areas, since they exist there. The issue is ... the seeds from THOSE plants are non-fertile as well, so THEY must have been transplanted much further back in time.
 
Skie_M said:
To get them to re-plant in a new area, the best method would be to cut several such root nodules away from a parent plant that already have a few shoots beginning to sprout, and plant them in the new area. They like very moist areas, especially near streams and roadside ditches that collect a lot of water ... their usual method of spreading is to have several root nodules and sprouts wash away together during a storm, to be deposited in another area downstream.
Click to expand...

I just want to add, if anyone wants to plant bamboo on their property just be aware that it can take over a garden. I looked into this years a go and to keep it from spreading you had to bury a barrier like a few inches of concrete or certain gauge of steel a few feet into the ground. :eek:
 
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