How is bamboo lumber made? (2016)

Post by Animats » Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 8:23 PM UTC

NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #128

g0gzs wrote: post #33

Long time lurker here, first time poster. I got pulled into the rabbit hole of building guitars at home during the covid lockdowns. My first build used traditional "tonewoods" (mahogany, ebony, rosewood etc.) and while purchasing materials for my second build, I stumbled upon bamboo boards on a German wood retailed shop. Compared the properties to the wood I wanted to use for parts of it (mainly the core/neck and fre…

One of the themes in this thread is reminding people that it's not actually bamboo, it's a bamboo composite--sort of like plywood. I doesn't work without petrochemical glues. I think it's fairer to say your build is 40%-ish bamboo composite. When we're calling it bamboo we're doing that industry's greenwashing marketing for them. Cool guitar!

Post by i_am_proteus » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 12:03 AM UTC

eropple wrote: post #173

i_am_proteus wrote: post #87

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Glues were made from animals for centuries and are animal glue is still phenomenal for a number of woodworking applications. It's also much more expensive than synthetic glue. This does not mean that a glued lumber product is necessarily unnatural or unsustainable, but rather that the price may end up being higher, and the properties different, when using a natural glue.

Totally right, but one thing I learned recently - hide glue isn't that much more expensive than the same manufacturers' PVA glues. (For folks who aren't familiar, though, animal glues aren't really substitutable for things like plywood; the ability to undo a hide glue joint is valuable in furnituremaking but not in plywood composition.)

Post by quixoticelixer- » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:21 AM UTC

navi0 wrote: post #202

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #132

Really neat article, love things like this on HN. I thought this was really interesting: > A bamboo stem reaches its maximum height in just a few months and shall not grow taller or thicker over time. In the following 4 years the fibers will "lignify" and get their extraordinary mechanical properties in terms of hardness, strength, density. That seems pretty fascinating to me. Are there any other plants/trees that gr…

Paulownia or Empress/Princess trees are one of the other top contenders from a growth/carbon sequestration standpoint[0]. They're one of the only trees that use C4 photosynthesis (more commonly employed by grasses like bamboo) than the C3 process most trees use. This lets them grow up to 20ft/6m per year, and they're able to be harvested commercially within five years. They're also good from a woodworking perspective…

Post by anon_cow1111 » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 4:51 AM UTC

h2odragon wrote: post #107

anon_cow1111 wrote: post #44

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God, I remember working at one job where I saw a couple stacks of metal come in on a nice sheet of 4x8 woven-bamboo instead of a crappy wood pallet or plywood, I'm now kicking myself for not grabbing them when I had the chance.

Story time! My uncle had some contact in fruit shipping, and noticed that this guy got pallets of mangoes (i think it was) with bottom plate boards that were 3/4th inch mahogany plywood. They'd been burning them as scrap. He salvaged enough to roof his houses in barns near the Florida coast and never worried about hurricanes. I have a couple chunks of it that have outlived the steel frame of the flatbed cargo trailer…

Post by ksec » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 10:58 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #162

lazide wrote: post #144

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Most trees won’t grow that fast (well almost nothing grows as fast as bamboo). Usually height of a plant or tree is determined by the available shade (more shade, the more the tree will try to climb above it), and available water. Less water generally means shorter, and more (easy) sun usually means shorter, though there is a huge genetic element of course. Some trees will collect significant water from rain or fog w…

Yes, I know and understand all that. The new information to me was that, after shooting up quickly to its final height, the bamboo basically just grows stronger and harder over the next 4 years without changing its dimensions. Curious if there are any other plants that do something similar, or why bamboo would do this in the first place, evolutionarily speaking.