Bamboo wind harps

[Bernard]

I'm about to heat cure some long stems of latiflorus and asper for making wind harps with. I'm going to keep them full length, so it will be a long narrow fire. I plan to heat them briefly and wipe them off with a cloth, then cool it with a hose of water and do it again. Rubbing beeswax would be a cumbersome addition to the process which is a trial, a first attempt. Its for outdoor use so I'm not so much looking for visual aesthetics but durability. Perhaps I will heat beeswax and add some linseed oil or teak oil to it to apply with a brush later. I would do this after I've carved out the slots in each internode as I want to soak the culms in a dam of water for a few weeks after the firing to deal with the starches - I may even fire them again after that, and then treat them. I'll be wrapping a tight brass wire around each node to reduce splitting.

Comments?