does bamboo grow in southern Ontario?

Question

I have a bambo like plant that grows around my house. Does anyone know what the name of it is ?

Answer 1

It probably is a form of bamboo. I have it in my backyard here in Massachusetts. It grows like a weed! I doubt it's the kind you can use for bamboo products/food, though.

Answer 2

Bamboo has many varieties and is found in many diverse habitats. Whether you have bamboo or not can only be determined by examining a specimen. Some species in China are virtually grass-like but others are about 100 feet (30 meters) high and as much as 10 inches...25 cms across or even larger. They are common in colder areas of Japan and China, but the more tropical varieties tend to be very rapidly growers. Vist either the Botany Department at your local University or ask someone from the Ministry of Agriculture for specific identification.

Answer 3

Check with your local nurseries.
bamboo is actually a member of the grass family.
Bananas grow on a plant not a tree.

Answer 4

I would think so, I understand they grow in the British Isles..

Answer 5

I think i would only grow in hot climates, not sure

Answer 6

Bamboo-Backed Bows
by Greg Harris

The beautiful thing about natural archery and wood bow buildings, is that when it comes to the realm of natural materials, there is a great host of material that can be incorporated into making that very unique bow that we bowyers always seem to be striving for - the bow with beauty as well as character.

If you're interested in building all wood composite bows, sooner or later you're going to want to try bamboo as a backing material. Bamboo is not only a very strong backing, but it is also very striking in appearance.

Generally speaking, any type of bamboo will do to ensure the tension safety of a wood bow, although some bamboos are better than others. Bamboo is commonly imported from throughout the greater Asian regions, but it does grow elsewhere as well. I have used bamboo grown from South America to Southern California, that has produced very nice bows, so as far as species is concerned, just use what ever you can get your hands on, as long as it's good, clean stuff, with a minimum of 4 inches in diameter.

As far as applying bamboo as a backing, there are no great tricks here; its basically the same process as applying wood backings. The problem usually stems in the process of getting the bamboo to the point of application.

Going the long route, we need to know how to take bamboo from pole form, then split it, size it, thin it, dry it, temper it, prep it, and bring it to the point of applying to the stave or belly wood.

There are so many different ways to go about it that I decided to consult several of my bowyer friends across the country, to add depth and insight to this project. I hope our collective knowledge will steer you in the right direction. These gentlemen are respectively, Jaap Koppedrayer, master bowyer of Yumi Bows, Daryl Forslund, head bowyer at Wild Wood Archery, and Roger Reborg - personal friend from Iowa.

Bamboo strips
From pole form, you can hand split the bamboo, or cut the strips with a small trim saw or band saw. Remember that finished width will be from 1-1/2" - 2" (inches) wide. Also, leave it longer than you need.

Thinning process
At this point, reduce the thickness of the bamboo by planing away some of the inside wall of the strip, thus opening it up for some air drying. This can be done by use of a band saw, hand plane, joiner planer, or whatever will get the job done. Remember that at this time, we are not reducing it to its finished thickness, we'll do that just before application.

Drying Process
Here's where things can get interesting. With fresh bamboo, we need to be concerned about bacterial decay, as well as warpage. Dry, controlled environments are going to pay off here. Jaap Koppedrayer, being trained in the ways of Japanese Archery, explains to me that getting the bamboo from green color to golden color has to do with sun exposure. This is done over a period of "several moons," during the dry sunny season it is brought indoors, and stored for more air drying time. Koppedrayer prefers several years of air drying, although he'll cut it as short as a year. His method has to do with his training. The way Koppedrayer put it to me, was that his bows are expected to be functional twenty years from now, and slow air drying of the bamboo will ensure this. I might also add that his bamboo is of the highest quality Japan has to offer. If you have ever seen any of his bows, you will understand quickly that this man is not your average bowyer. His bows are a work of art, skill, and tradition.

After thinning the bamboo, I allow it to air dry for several months before I begin to speed dry it in my hot box wood dryer. I'll systematically stack a load of bamboo strips, securing the load to prevent warpage, in the hot box, and set the temperature at 90°-100° fahrenheit. Depending on the bamboo, it may take 14-21 days to bring it down to around 10% moisture content. At this point, I'll take it out and restack it indoors for more air drying. The dryer it gets, the more golden in color. Be aware that different species of bamboo have different shades of color. Also, I am sure to keep my strips pressed flat all along this procedure, so it makes it easier to work with later.

Tempering Method
Starting out with a bamboo strip, having a moisture content of 10%, we go on to the tempering process. Tempering, by way of heat, and in some cases, extreme heat, will add to the efficiency of the bow. What tempering does is more than just reducing moisture. It solidifies the natural resins and fibers together, causing the bamboo to stiffen, thereby making it more resilient which adds cast to the bow. I guess you could say, it goes through a molecular restructuring. One thing I do know, is that there is a difference in performance, between tempered bamboo, and un-tempered bamboo. You may ask yourself, "Is this necessary to do, to build a bamboo backed bow?" No, I guess it's not, but I believe you'll find that un-tempered bamboo will produce a bow with more set, and less speed, but of course, if you could at least dry the bamboo to 7-8% moisture content, this would help some. I was asked, on one occasion if heat treating bamboo shortens the life of a bow. My response was, "I don't know" - so much for my college education. I will say this, that on simple bamboo backed bows where the wood is just faced with bamboo, I don't think its of major concern.

Here's three options for tempering bamboo. My friend Roger Reborg, straps his strips to metal supports, and puts them in a baker's oven at 400°, for 20 minutes, and "Voila!" They're done, complete with a slice of pizza. At Wild Wood Archery, Daryl Forslund flame tempers his bamboo with a flame thrower. Well, it looks like one. (It's a short wand powered by propane.) Forslund tells me that time is not the critical factor here, but watching for that certain change in color is. He looks for it to turn a darker shade of gold, careful not to overdo it or cause un-uniform color. Approximate time 3 minutes.

My own process is using my hot box wood dryer, and setting the run at 180° for 6-8 hours, keeping an hourly watch on it for any problems.

At Yumi Bows, you'll never find tempered bamboo. It's not the traditional way of building the Asian bows and besides, who am I to criticize Jaap Koppedrayer's bows? Their own merit alone is enough to intimidate me.

At the time of tempering, you may want to use a jig or form of sorts, to dry your strips in de-flex. This will add pre-load to the limbs when building a Perry-Reflex design, but make sure it is finish ground before the final tempering process. I use a form that gives 2 inches of de-flex.

Final Taper
As a rule of thumb, your backing strip will have a wall thickness of around 1/8 inch thick. This will vary from person to person I'm sure as well as bow design - longbow or flatbow. If your backing strips were dried and tempered flat, the final grinding will be easier. Roger Reborg has a neat way of grinding a parallel taper that is easy and uniform. He starts out with a radial-arm saw, complete with a drum sanding head. After setting up a guide fence, producing a gap between sanding head and fence, he feeds the backing strip, on edge in the support, through the gap, thus producing a nice parallel taper. Let me describe the strip form. It's approximately 72 inches long x 2 inches wide x 1 inch thick. A strip of very dense blue styrofoam board of the same dimensions is glued onto the support form. When the bamboo is set with the nodes down, there is just enough give in the foam to absorb the nodes while keeping the strip parallel to the form, and then when turned on edge and fed through the gap, a parallel taper is produced. (See Sketch 1).

Now, of course, you can do this other ways as well. Forslund band saws the belly side of the strip away. No guides, no fences, no rules, just like the wild west! He then finish sands it with a belt sander critically eyeing every part of it. Does he get a good flat glue line? His bows speak for themselves. If you cut your strips longer than needed, you can place them on a form, nodes down, and screw the ends down with recessed heads, allowing uniform grinding with various tools - hand or electric.

Bow design
Depending on longbow or flatbow, you can best utilize your bamboo. Long bows with narrower limb widths than flatbows can use smaller diameter bamboo. It would be nice if we all had access to 8 inch diameter bamboo, but at times this is not possible. The smaller the bamboo diameter, the lighter the crown on the backing strip, and at times this can produce heavy crushing on the belly wood. With flatbows having a limb width of 1 3/4 inches or more, I try to use 6 inch diameter and larger bamboo. I try not to use anything under 4 inches for very narrow limbed bows.

Belly Woods
Since bamboo is one tough customer, its very important to use belly woods that can withstand great compression. The thicker the backing, the heavier the compression so by thinning the backing you can moderate some of this pressure. Osage, yew, and hickory are old favorites here, but there are a host of exotics that will do the job such as wenge, snake wood, paduk, and even bamboo itself, just to name a few.

Prep work
No secrets here. Smooth sand all gluing surfaces, and de-grease to get ready for gluing. Your choice of glues will be dictated by whether or not you want to stay with natural materials. Again, Koppedrayer tells me that glues made from rice, deer, and fish, were used with the Asian bows. Forslund and Reborg settle for epoxies. Reborg also adds that for the guy without a hot box to cure the glue, just wrap your stave with black innertube strips from truck tires and set it in the sun to dry. The black innertube absorbs the sun's heat, and brings the internal heat of the stave to 150°. Two hours of this will do.

Forms
Before going on to reflexed bows, try a standard straight glue-up. A simple board will work for this. Just stack all your material accordingly, and strap down with rubber strips, rope or what have you. This may produce a bow with more set, but you will find it smooth drawing, accurate shooting, and very forgiving. As a general reminder, your backing strip will be 1/8" thick, the belly wood 1/29-19 thick, depending on longbow or flatbow, and a riser block of 19 thick will suffice.

To scrape or not to scrape
With the stave cured, trimmed out, and ready to tiller, we return to the bamboo backing. The phrase "scraping the shell" refers to scraping the outward surface of the bamboo. If the bamboo is good, clean, unmarred stuff, leave it natural - that is what bamboo backed bows are all about. If the bamboo is structurally sound, but full of scratches, blemishes or other imperfections, by all means scrape it out. With a simple scraper such as a pocket knife this can be achieved. Be careful to follow the natural contour of the bamboo making sure not to scrape off the nodes. We just want to remove the surface. This makes for a vast difference in appearance. When scraped out, the power fibers are now exposed, but if done properly, this will not damage the integrity of the bow. With a scraped finish, it still retains a rugged beauty.

Finish work
After the bow has been tillered, shot in and finish sanded, remember to give special attention to detail. A good water proof seal can add as much to a bow as a well wrapped handle or tip overlays from various materials.

Other thoughts:

I asked my three friends mentioned here; if they had any personal thoughts or tips that would aid others in this project. Koopedrayer said that he likes to outline the bow on the bamboo, cuts it and tapers it. He says that after a few bows, the reason for this will be obvious. Surely experience is a great teacher. Reborg tells me he likes to tiller the upper limb 3/89 higher than the lower, with an even layout, shooting the arrow approximately 2 1/8 inches above center, thus making a real sweet shooter. He also adds that grinding your bow out on a 12 inch disk sander with 36 grit paper, prevents bamboo from splintering. I agree with him. Forslund cautions all to watch glue lines, treat this stave as a self bow, and for the first timer, avoid the reflex bow design.

There are other things we can say here, but as my friend Jaap Koppedrayer says, "Don't spoon feed, let others think on this too." Good advice.

For those who want a good bamboo backed bow, but may not be up to taking the challenge of making one, I highly recommend the services of Yumi Bows, and WildWood Archery respectively.