Bamboo pole - Heat treating questions

[tesuji]

I don't know the specific kind of bamboo that it is, but its 6.5 feet long and I have been drying it out upright for at least 3 months. At this point it has turned from a green to a whitish color, with a flaky membrane on the outside. I would like to heat treat it with a normal camp fire, but I'm not sure that I will get the strength from it that I need. Is my concern valid? If it is, is there something that I can put in hollow part of the bamboo to reenforce its strength?

I have read posts on how to heat treat the bamboo, but I'm not sure that I understand it still all the way. I don't want to ruin the bamboo, its the only stuff I have. Does anyone have pictures of the process, or key signs of when things are going well?

Thanks for any help.

[CaroleMeckes]

Did you harvest the bamboo yourself?

What are you going to make with the piece?

Carole

[Strider_1952]

Tesuji,

If I understand it, heat-treating can be considered caramelizing of the bamboo. During heat-treating the sugars/starches are converted to a different form. This does two things: first it removes food for certain insects, but it also stiffens up the culm.

If onions and flour can be caramelized on a campfire then it follows that bamboo can be caramelized using the campfire. When I cook on a campfire, I always make a side space with a rack to hold the pans; this way I can use hot coals to cook with for even heat. I think something like a small barbecue with legs would work great for this. The legs would elevate the heat and allow better access to the heat.

I have witnessed heat-treating several times on dried bamboo and once on green bamboo. And a propane torch was used. What you are looking for is the caramel color to appear. As this is happening the waxy coating you described will turn to liquid. I suppose it would be a matter of choice, but this is often removed by wiping it off with a cloth rag. Depending of the final use and desired finish, replacement wax is often applied to replace the original wax. And just like a good rue, you can heat it to the desired level of caramellzation, however you can also heat it to carbonization in which case you burnt the rue. The correct amount of caramellzation for strength is not known to me and would most probably be different for different bamboos. So to sum it up, you heat the bamboo until the color starts to change to a caramel color. When the desired color has been reached, move the heat up the culm until the entire culm has been treated.

My personal belief is that heat-treating using the smoking method would produce the best treatment. If done slow enough with the correct temperature, then the bamboo culms would be more deeply and evenly treated. I have plans to develop this method in the future, but work and other projects have me tied up right now.

The strength of the culms will depend a lot on the culms themselves. The type of bamboo, the diameter of the culms and how old they when they were harvested will have a great affect on the strength of the culms.

Michael

[tesuji]

Thanks for the reply. I live in east texas and I found it were there, so whatever bamboo it is thats the closest I can come up with. I'd like to use it for a staff, or maybe later turn it into a shaft for a spear.

Does anyone know what an escrima stick is?
Its an asian short fighting stick. The reason I bring this up is that they use bamboo as the stick.. and it seems to have a filling in it so that it isn't hollow, but it's very strong. That was one of my ideas to strengthen the staff.

[tonytao]

hi,

if you want to bend bamboo pole, you can heat it. but if you only want to change the poles into a beatiful color, no need to heat, the best way is to sand , and finish the poles.

No ned to put something in the hollow to reinforce strength

Here is a link maybe useful:

http://www.chinabamboogarden.com/tech.asp

[Toughdago]

I used to do escrima and we always used rattan . Bamboo wouldn't work it would crack.