bamboo gift and question

[possum]

Sunday while at work I was scrapin down a shoot from an old bush I had cut 9 years earlier.  Someone asked what I was doin and I told him making an arrow.  We got to talking and he said he'd like to see one of my bows.  Monday I brought it in.  He said he was impressed (so was I... it shoots )  About one hour later he shows up with a 10 foot bamboo pole and gives it to me and says he wants me to make a bow with it.  Wow!   He says it is tonkin and he makes fishing poles with it.  Now there are several concerns I have. 1)  It is only about 2" wide, but thick walled.  2) How narrow a bow will bamboo make?  Either he is a nice guy or very mean.  This could be challenging.  I mean, I already had to get it home in a Ford Escort .  Stuck out the trunk and out the front window just to fit.  The challenge doesn't bother me... I like it.  I just have never made a narrow bow.

possum

[tom sawyer]

How do you envision making a bow?  Cutting it in half, flattening and then gluing it back together?  Using it for backing on a wood belly?  The latter is more common than the former but both are options.

[possum]

I had been thinking of using it as a backing but the all bamboo bow has always intrigued me but one side of this can is alreeady cracked from drying for the last 23 years.

[snedeker]

with a 2" diameter piece you could rip of a pretty narrow strip and do a nice backed bow on one of the hard tropical woods, like ipe, massaranduba, bubinga, etc.  Maybe 1 & 1/8" wide.

Dave