Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#61

Post by RandallBrown » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 4:40 PM UTC

Tor3 wrote: post #19

RobertRoberts wrote: post #14

Relatives that lived in Japan brought back bamboo stuff to the US, and it all cracked within a year or so. The reason was that bamboo does well in wet climates where the moisture in the air keeps in flexible. (or something like that) But in the US, it's much drier (most places) than in Japan. This fits with my experience of bamboo furniture over the years as well. It becomes brittle and fragile the older it gets. But…

I don't doubt what you're saying, but I wonder why my bamboo ski poles don't crack. I have lots of them, and they've been used every winter for nearly forty years, from back when I bought them. They're as good as new, still. I bought all the stock of the last shop selling them at the time, in my student town, as I didn't want to use fiber or metal poles in the mountains (can't easily be fixed if they break, while bam…

There are a few companies making new bamboo ski poles. Panda Poles and Soul Poles are two that I see regularly on the mountain.

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#62

Post by fencepost » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 4:41 PM UTC

cmiller1 wrote: post #26

RobertRoberts wrote: post #14

Relatives that lived in Japan brought back bamboo stuff to the US, and it all cracked within a year or so. The reason was that bamboo does well in wet climates where the moisture in the air keeps in flexible. (or something like that) But in the US, it's much drier (most places) than in Japan. This fits with my experience of bamboo furniture over the years as well. It becomes brittle and fragile the older it gets. But…

I have engineered bamboo "wood" flooring that I like a lot and after a few years haven't noticed any cracking or warping; perhaps it went through more extensive treatment processes?

It's like building a wooden strip canoe - by the time you're finished with the sanding, fiberglass, resin, etc. it's more of a fiberglass canoe that looks like wooden strips.

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#63

Post by ConceptJunkie » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 4:45 PM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #49

RobertRoberts wrote: post #14

Relatives that lived in Japan brought back bamboo stuff to the US, and it all cracked within a year or so. The reason was that bamboo does well in wet climates where the moisture in the air keeps in flexible. (or something like that) But in the US, it's much drier (most places) than in Japan. This fits with my experience of bamboo furniture over the years as well. It becomes brittle and fragile the older it gets. But…

Can you oil it to prevent this from happening? I have several Bamboo cutting boards that have lasted for years because I oil them frequently. I also do this with wooden spoons and other un-finished wood products.

I have a bamboo cutting board that I've been using for about 10 years and it's still as good as new. Perhaps it was treated specially, because I've never done anything special to care for it (and had no idea that might be necessary).

I also have some bamboo spoons and spatulas that get used almost daily and they have lasted for many years as well. I wash them in the dishwasher, which perhaps gives them the level of moisture needed to stay good.

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#64

Post by rsl7 » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 4:53 PM UTC

brodouevencode wrote: post #32

cmiller1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have engineered bamboo "wood" flooring that I like a lot and after a few years haven't noticed any cracking or warping; perhaps it went through more extensive treatment processes?

Flooring - first it's cut into strips, then boiled in a solution to remove the starchy compounds, then dried and pressed, then planed down for a lamination process, laminated (using typically more epoxy than other lumber-based laminates), then cut into the final form for the end user. Bamboo is a grass, and it's hollow - it neither looks nor handles like real lumber. It's often touted as a "greener" alternative to lu…

Well, for one thing, it grows incredibly fast, and spreads like a weed (some types, anyway).

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#65

Post by stinos » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

angry_octet wrote: post #57

stinos wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The impact of shipping bamboo from where it grows to where the lumber is needed might also need be considered for completeness. Now, I don't know how you define biomass but would be inetersting to see numbers. Just from the looks: ok those big bamboo species grow way closer together than oak for instance, but on the other hand an oak tree grows much thicker and the wood per cubic is almost certainly going to be heavi…

Sea freight is remarkably cheap.

But not too ideal when it comes to air pollution and CO2. Would require comparisions with more local wood transported over land and/or river though to make factual statements about it I guess.

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#66

Post by vram22 » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:00 PM UTC

Bamboo, coconut, neem and maybe banana are considered "wonder trees or plants", IIRC, because each has many uses. Banana maybe a bit less than the other three. Also garlic for health (neem is known for health uses but also has many uses).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadirachta_indica

In India neem cake (residue after extracting oil from neem seeds) is fed to cattle and used as an organic fertilizer (IIRC, as are some other oilseed cakes, some of them are used as feed in aquaculture too), fresh young neem leaves are made into a paste/curry and eaten in some states (good for purifying the blood and skin and getting rid of worms), neem twigs are used as toothbrushes (the germicidal properties help), neem oil is applied on cattle (and sometimes humans use it) to keep away flies and insects, etc. etc.

For banana, apart from eating the ripe fruit, in southern states at least, the raw fruit is also cooked, the flowers and stems are also eaten as vegetables in curries (dry or wet), the leaves are used as plates for eating (thrown after one use), etc.

It's really amazing the number of different uses that many plants and trees have been put to, traditionally. I read a lot about this for Indian plants in a government research institute's publications some time ago. Fuel, food, timber, other construction material, medicine (both external and internal), are some of the uses known.

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#67

Post by vram22 » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:00 PM UTC

vram22 wrote: post #66

Bamboo, coconut, neem and maybe banana are considered "wonder trees or plants", IIRC, because each has many uses. Banana maybe a bit less than the other three. Also garlic for health (neem is known for health uses but also has many uses). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadirachta_indica In India neem cake (residue after extracting oil from neem seeds) is fed to cattle and used as an organic fertilizer (IIRC, as are s…

Moringa (drumstick) and jackfruit are two others.

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#68

Post by djrogers » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:01 PM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #49

RobertRoberts wrote: post #14

Relatives that lived in Japan brought back bamboo stuff to the US, and it all cracked within a year or so. The reason was that bamboo does well in wet climates where the moisture in the air keeps in flexible. (or something like that) But in the US, it's much drier (most places) than in Japan. This fits with my experience of bamboo furniture over the years as well. It becomes brittle and fragile the older it gets. But…

Can you oil it to prevent this from happening? I have several Bamboo cutting boards that have lasted for years because I oil them frequently. I also do this with wooden spoons and other un-finished wood products.

Your bamboo cutting board is likely made in a manner similar to bamboo flooring as outlined in the article - a lot of treatments to make it stable and usable.

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#69

Post by xte » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:03 PM UTC

IMO bamboo can't be a bigger thing than wood simply because:

- bamboo cultivation came from not-much-developed countries, so not much good for us and not much easy to develop for them;

- bamboo duration, even with not so cheap treatments, is far less than the wood;

- bamboo fire resistance is very low, even with not so cheap treatments;

There is a trend in the western for bamboo simply because we consume more wood than natural regeneration and we need cheaper alternatives but this trend is really limited to consumer stuff, not structural/real architecture one as many do in some Asian and south-American countries...

Re: Why isn't bamboo wood a bigger industry?

#70

Post by ssnistfajen » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:06 PM UTC

chillacy wrote: post #60

forkLding wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The channel is hosted by a fan but owned by the girl, she uploads her actual content to a short-video site

I’m not entirely comfortable with the ethics of this but one great opportunity is going to be content arbitrage, especially between Chinese internet sites and then greater world’s. There are some pretty funny memes coming out of Tik Tok now.

Content arbitrage has been a thing inside China for a few years, particularly due to the Great Fire Wall blocking a great deal of websites. Quite a few accounts exist on Wechat and Weibo that aggregate memes and viral videos from Youtube and Twitter.

A few prominent Chinese video creators have made their way to launch official Youtube channels. Chinese-language Youtube has been experiencing a boom since 2015 due to increasing numbers of international students living abroad, proliferation of VPNs, and users in HK/TW.