Bamboo, the one that got away

[Eric Krewson]

I have been cutting bamboo out of a patch across town for 15 years, great stuff, giant timber bamboo.

The old man that sold the bamboo to me had died so I lost access. I had heard that the patch had been leveled but today I noticed a Craig's list ad that said "bamboo all sizes come get all you want", the patch in the pictures looked familiar so I gave the guy a call. Turns out it was the same patch I had been cutting out of, he had indeed pushed all the bamboo in a pile but told me I could salvage any I wanted.

I drove over for a look, it was heart breaking, lots of standing dead, some pretty big and a huge pile of cut stuff, most had been out in the weather too long. I did find a couple of trunks that were in good shape, dry on the sunny side and green on the underside, no mold. What I go was about 4" in diameter. Some of the badly weathered stuff was every bit of 7" in diameter, dang.

The stuff was sprouting up everywhere, the guy also said dig all the roots you want but I am too old to start a patch anywhere.

Here is what I salvaged, all very sound and partially seasoned.

[Bob Barnes]

what a shame...glad you saved some...   

[Eric Krewson]

Here is a picture of the bamboo before it was pushed in a pile, some of the big stuff is 18"-20" between the nodes.



Here is the patch before it was completely cut;

[BowEd]

That's a very good find Eric.On mans' treasure is anothers junk they say.Glad you got there to take advantage of it.Get it growing around you where you can keep an eye on it is the best thing.I always like keeping some around myself for bows too and wish I had it growing by me.
Quite the distance between nodes I'd say also.You've had good success with this bamboo?

[Eric Krewson]

About 40 bows and one failure, I still can't understand why the bamboo failed between the nodes on that bow.

[PatM]

Touch of internal mildew/rot?    Sometimes when you split a culm you'll see a bit of internal discoloration that likely creeps into the power fibers.   This usually happens with stuff that sits in a shipping container for too long.

 I recently bough a culm of Tonkin that had this and even though it looks OK a strip of it snaps like cedar.

[Eric Krewson]

I don't see any mildew on what I cut but did see some on the trunks that had been in the pile longer. I knocked out the internal nodes and put it up to dry in my shop. I will definitely do a bend test, especially at the nodes before I trust it.

[Dances with squirrels]

It's sad when that happens. At least you salvaged a few good pieces. I've found osage but didn't ask for permission to cut it right away, only to return to find entire beautiful rows cut and burned. Sad.

[Bayou Ben]

Yeah at least you were able to salvage some.  What will your bend test look like?
When I cut the profile out on bamboo I often take the left over pieces and bend them until they break.  They bend a lot before breaking, and it's easy to see why they are such good backings.