Solid bamboo

[Ben.A.M]

Went to check out one of the many local bamboo farms today that I hadn’t yet been to and it turned out to be owned by one of the guys in my swimming squad who gave me the grand tour along with a pile of bamboo to trial, long story short he gave me a type (don’t ask me the names as I was thoroughly confused after 5 mins) that is typically solid for the first 3-4 nodes then the hollows gradually get larger the higher you go, so what I was wondering, has anyone tried or know of anyone who has made a single solid piece bamboo bow and heat tempered or fire hardened the belly? I’ve tried laminating fire hardened boo to natural without much success and with all this talk of fire hardening bows lately thought it might be a viable option, be interested to hear peoples thoughts and I’ll include some pics,
Cheers!

[Ben.A.M]

Maximum diameter for this type of bamboo seems to be around 3 inches

[Ben.A.M]

Slight twist when it split which will be easy to iron out and one of the nodes has a sap like jelly in it for some reason but it’s got awesome potential

[Hamish]

velly intellesting, hmmmm.

[Hamish]

How long is the solid section? Full length for a bow or could it be used for billets.

Might be worth a try, would you make it Bhutanese style, with the outside, power fibres  on the belly, and tiller on the back?

[Ben.A.M]

Hi Hamish, not sure what a Bhutanese looks like but I’m hoping I can just treat it like a normal timber stave, not going to break the fibres on the back just tiller the belly and hopefully temper it to provide some compressive force but I’ve only heard of this being done as 2 seperate laminations, 1 heat treated (belly) and one not (back), I’ve split the bamboo in half and it’s solid for about 5 foot then the walls taper to about 15mm at its thinnest which gives me plenty to work with, just hoping someone else has attempted this and if so, what the best method would be.

[Del the cat]

Interesting
Del

[PatM]

Dave Mead's bows just have whole bamboo slats for limbs.  There's not even a whole surface area for the belly.

[Ben.A.M]

Hi Pat! Just had a look on his site, that’s the first I’ve seen a single slat used as a bow except for kids bows, couldn’t seem to find anything on how he’s prepared them but my experience with bamboo is usually just as a backing, my first bows ever made were small bamboo ones for my kids but they seemed sluggish (kids loved them and it gave me the bug) but I was always under the impression you needed that compression to complement the bamboo, perhaps he is heat treating them? Either way it gives me hope so I guess I’ll give it a shot and let you guys know how it turns out, wish me luck!

[bassman]

I just posted 2 single slat bamboo siyah bows on here that were Dave Mead style bows.Yes the belly of these bows are heat treated. Over all length  of slat ,thickness ,length and angle  of siyahs, width, and heat treating plus handle pitch all play a part in draw length,and poundage.

[dylanholderman]

As mentioned Bhutanese bows use solid bamboo just in two pieces overlapped at the handle, and I’ve also seen what looks like one piece bamboo bows from Thailand with a carved piece of hardwood tied on for the grip.

[bownarra]

Use the outer surface for the belly. Heat treat it.
The back of your bow should be the inner surface.
If you use pyramid taper to the limbs the back fibres aren't stepped through keeping the back totally safe.
This is how the Bhutanese bows are made.
You will have to make sure it is thoroughly dry before heat treating.
Good luck
I'd love to play around with that stuff!

[DC]

Since nothing is new in this game I'm really surprised that this stuff hasn't reared it's head before. Makes me think something is wrong with it but I'd also like to give it a shot. Very intriguing

[Ben.A.M]

Thanks for the clarification Bownarra, I’ve never encountered that style before and I could definitely try it with one of the thinner walled bamboo, and Bassman, that’s exactly what I needed to hear, I’ll give it a shot and try and flip the tips in the process, did you temper with heat gun or fire? And DC, yeah, I couldn’t seem to track anything down, possibly just a wrong choice of key words but it certainly opens up a few more options I hadn’t considered before, just have to wait for these suckers to dry.

[Hamish]

Looks like its still very green? I'd tie it down to a form, in case it twists, and keep an eye on it in case it does some weird checking.

Another good description by Bownarra, about the Bhutanese style bow.