Finishing a Bamboo Backing

[Tommy D]

So I’ve done some reading on the subject and the consensus I could gather was that penetrating leather dyes work well but you need to remove the waxy rind on the bamboo. This is best done with fine sandpaper so you don’t leave any nicks in the powerfibers. Beneath the waxy rind is a white layer. It is ok to remove this too, but some folks leave it on?

Here is a picture of where I am at. You will see I removed a node in the middle of my handle. From here going to the left one can see what I believe are power fibers and then the streaks are the “white portion”... I’ve been using 400 grit.



Should I stop here?

Once the stain has penetrated and dried what is a good coating on this? I’ve been using water based varnish but was thinking a thin layer of epoxy might be more durable?

[Pat B]

Removing the rind is all that is necessary to get stain to penetrate the boo. Beyond that you are going into the power fibers, the strength of the boo.

[Tommy D]

So are those white streaks rind or something else? And do I leave them?

[PatM]

Leave them.  There  is a sort of chalky intermediate layer between the glossy rind and the power fibers.