using green bamboo for bookshelf

[Kay McGill]

Hello Mark,
I have sure learned alot reading all other questions others have. What I would like to know is if I can use green bamboo to make standup bookcase with shelves. I made an 8' x 4' one with 3 shelves that I tiled in broken up granite. (just the tops and outside edge has granite.) I still haven't come up with what design I want on top. Anyway, this was my first try with bamboo and I learned alot. (of what not to do)ha I dried the bamboo using a prophane torch and that took forever! Plus, I almost had a couple of heart attacks when I would forget to knock out the center of the bamboo and all of a sudden it would sound like a gun went off !!!!! Alittle too much pressure had built up.ha Now a friend wants me to make her some for one of her clients for actual money. Ha, if they only knew what I went through with mine. Please tell me that I can use green bamboo or I need to torch it alittle. Just kidding, I need to learn the right way, right! Thanks so much! Kay

[Mark Meckes]

Hi Kay,
Thanks so much for writing! I got a good chuckle reading about your experiences! For some reason I feel much better now that you have shared some of the same learning experiences I've been going through.
It seems that the best way to master a procedure is to do it again and again and again, and it gets easier and more refined.
Personally, I'll never master anything because I tend to do the opposite, going from one project to another, always with many projects in various stages of incompletedness!! Despite knowing that if I stuck to one thing I would get better at it.
Heat treating with a propane torch is definitely in this category. It takes lots of practice!
A friend of mine does heat treating continuilly for two or more weeks before proceeding with the next step in making his musical instruments. He immerses himself into this process, kinda zones out till he's done.
If, like in his case, the objective of heat treating is to make the bamboo more resilient to splitting, then it is necessary to do this procedure within a reasonable time after harvesting (a couple months or so, max) while the bamboo still retains some freshness and moisture.
Note that this process doesn't dry out the bamboo. Only a small percentage of moisture evaporates during the procedure. The balance of the moisture evaporates naturally, air-dried, afterwards.
Now, I've been doing some heat treating experiments lately with some carved sculptures, which I'll write more about later, and one method purposefully forces the bamboo to expand and expand and...
Okay,
here's one example.... (http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=861)
Well, I've been rambling on here, not really answering any of your questions!
First thing, I've never really made any bamboo furniture! Aw shucks! Maybe I will one of these days.
Yes, there's a lot of ways to heat temper bamboo, from just a light touch to a dark coating, and various shades and effects in between. It doesn't have to be done while the bamboo is green, but there is much more control of the procedure when the bamboo is recently harvested. The moisture in the bamboo actually prevents the bamboo from burning excessively.
It is definitely possible to do this procedure without the bamboo POPING, and without knocking out the innernodes, but one has to be more careful not to overheat the bamboo. More to do with hand dexterity and movement of the gas flame and darkening the bamboo in stages or shades...

Please feel free to re-ask all the questions I have not answered!
Here's two questions for you...
What species of bamboo are you using, and how dry/ fresh cut is the `green' material?

Mark