BAMBOO? I like bamboo quite a lot, and I've been using it for masts and spars, punting poles and paddle shafts as well as spars on my model proas.

THERE are other things I'm doing with it which will be revealed as things happen: paddles, rafts, strip planking and stuff.

One current project is a bamboo-framed fabric kayak based on one used by Fridtjof Nansen in the Arctic. I have a rough draft plan based on a photo from his book. The two original kayaks are in the Fram Museum in Norway, but as far as I can tell, there are no photos or measurements easily accessible.

As of November, 1997, I got the boat's deck framed, the stem and stern tentatively attached, the keel approrimately in place. I stopped then for several reasons and here it is, 1/1/Y2K, and the thing still isn't finished. Sometime.

For a picture of the early stages of construction click here.

The Kayak

Around here it's typical to find groves of Phyllostachys Aurea and Pseudosasa Japonica. I've mainly used P. Aurea -- which I'm using on the kayak -- but Japonica seems like a nice bamboo for sail battens on small sized sails.

Bamboo is commercially available in strip form, as tongue and groove hardwood flooring, and in basketweave 4x8-foot veneer panels. As I find out more about the commercial stuff I'll be publishing info.

A fast update upon commercial sources: they're out there, but I'm reluctant to recommend anything because it has been almost impossible to get meaningful quantities of samples. I'd hoped to be able to make up some boat odds and ends (floorboards, hatch covers) and give them a straightforward use test, but so far, well ... so I suggest you take a look at my bamboo-as-materials listing on the American Bamboo Society web page. Includes several long bibliographies:

More about bamboo, below.

NAWANGK AMBU (the Bamboo Raft).

Visit the Tray Boat of Tai Wan, and the Basket Boat of Indochina.

From: Stephen Kandul, about obtaining live bamboo plants:

If you are ever in the Savannah, Georgia area you might stop by the

University of Georgia, Coastal Agricultural Station on US 17.

The station was originally founded in the early 1900s to cultivate bamboo

species collected in the Orient. They have all sorts of lowland and mountain bamboo

(several hundred species) and sell cuttings and plugs at reasonable prices.

 

So, if you didn't get a few pieces of root ball through customs on your

last trip to Vietnam you can still procure the means to cultivate your own

grove of Black Bamboo for dinghy masts in your own back yard. I have been

concentrating on the Black for the past two years because I like the color contrast.

 

No affiliation, etc. Just a satisfied customer.

---

Bamboo for Boat Spars?

Here are sources in the UK and USA if you can't locate anything right in your neighborhood. I've successfully used P. Aurea, though some pieces will split much faster than others; it seems individual culms are variable in this connection.

Here are some excellent bamboo links. The ABS pages include several bibliographies which I compiled and loads of information on bamboo growing. More bamboo links below.

How Strong is Bamboo?

An article from Ingersoll-Rand's trade magazine Compressed Air...

American Bamboo Society

European Bamboo Society

Bamboo Harvesting in China

(Pix are slow to load, unfortunately).

Bamboo in Costa Rica

Home page for a foundation in Costa Rica, "Funbambu". Not as in "fun", as in "fundacion", but hey, it better be fun, too.

Booklist: Adhesives and Materials

Very little on bamboo per se but a good place to look for titles covering other things that go into bamboo constructivism.

Quindembo Bamboo

Searching on [Bamboo and ABS]:

Copped shamelessly from Alta Vista on 5/20/97 by searching on the ABS' web address. List mercilessly shortened at the end of 1999. Please note that I'm interested in bamboo construction, not in gardening.

Bamboo Resources ...Mar97 Resources for More Bamboo Info

Green Architecture ...Feb97 Green Architecture. Very good links.

Bamboo on the Oregon Coast..Jan97 Bamboo News

Bamboo Source ...Dec96 San Marcos Growers

Baminfo .......... also San Marcos Growers

USDA-ARS, Tropical Agricu...Feb97 Tropical Agriculture Research

Bamboo Garden Nursery,The...Feb97 The Bamboo Garden Nursery.

Bamboo Contacts outside t...Jan97 Bamboo Contacts

. . .

Personal Pages:

None right now...

. . .

Botany:

Scott's Botanical Links--.......... Subject Index

Internet Directory for Bo...May97 Internet Directory for Botany

AABGA: Related Sites ...Feb97 Related Floral & Faunal Sites.

AABGA Am Assoc Botanical Gardens & Arboreta

Botanical Gardens of the World..... Index of Worldwide Arboretums

 

The rest:

The Gardening Launch Pad ...Feb97 Bamboo. Main Page (Good links).

The Horticultural Web Com...Aug96 A links list, more.

Gardening @ HomeWorld ...Nov96 A world of solutions for your

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