Author Topic: Harvesting Bambo  (Read 3924 times)

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Offline Pat B

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Re: Harvesting Bambo
« Reply #15 on: February 15, 2013, 12:05:40 am »
That type of boo grows around here also. It is an Asian import. It is not a clumping type but has a barrier buried around it. You can see the sheet metal roofing sticking out of the ground. You can try the smaller culms you harvested to see if they will make arrows. Let them dry for a month or two before to start t(canes)he straightening.
  Being you live in Portland there are lots of possibilities for different types of cane. Check out the Japanese Gardens and the Chinese Tea Garden in Chinatown. They all have bamboos and they need to be thinned and pruned occasionally. There is probably a bamboo nursery near by that you could buy the right varieties for shafting or collect culms from them. 
  If you can find Bambusa multiplex it is a clumping type(non-invasive) and makes excellent arrows...and fishing poles.  ;)
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline Dan K

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Re: Harvesting Bambo
« Reply #16 on: February 15, 2013, 12:34:26 am »
Thanks so much you guys!  I will try these out and post the results in a couple months when they dry.  Thanks for the leads Pat.  I never thought about asking the maintenance folks at the gardens, I bet they'd be happy to help by recycling their clippings.  I would like to plant some bamboo in my yard and it sounds like the Bambusa multiplex is the best for around the house.
Excellence is a state of mind.  Whether you think you can or can't...you're right!

Offline stickbender

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Re: Harvesting Bambo
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2013, 04:15:50 am »

     Looks like plain ol bamboo.  The sheaths, are the elongated pointed leaf like covering  on the node section.  If you have cane under two years old, like pat said, it is thin walled, and weak, and floppy.  Plus when it dries, will develop wrinkles in it.  I wouldn't bother with that, for arrows, there are other neat projects you can make out of it though.  Like quivers to fit on your bow, blow gun dart quivers, wind chimes, fishing poles, maybe even Tee Pee poles, gluing the dried sliced sections together, and making cutting boards, chop sticks, stakes, Thinned down for bow backings, whatever your imagination can think of for it.  Bamboo is the most versatile wood (actually a grass) there is, plus it puts more oxygen into the atmosphere than any other plant.  Neat stuff.  Some varieties grow so fast, you can almost see them grow! There are a "LOT" of different species of bamboo, from ornamental, like the turtle back species, to timber species.  There are bucket species, which get their name from the fact they are so wide, they make excellent buckets.  Bamboo is the preferred material for scaffolding in Taiwan, and other Oriental places, because of it's strength, flexibility, and cheap cost.  In fact there was a huge building being built, and a storm came up, and the steel scaffolding, was twisted, and blown down, while the bamboo was still intact!  They have apprenticeships to learn to tie the poles together.  Most of the varieties spread out and you have to keep them in check.  They will send out runners.  Nope, I would not bother with that patch for arrows.

                                                   Wayne