Working with Bamboo

Bamboo is one of the most useful plants as it can be used to make houses, traps, cages, furniture, tools, weapons, bridges, rafts, towers, fences, water wheels, irrigation pipes, and thousands of other items. The challenge however, is learning how to connect those bamboo canes.

In this DIY tutorial we'll show you how to make a bamboo chair with very basic hand tools and without the use of any metal nails or screws.

In this DIY tutorial we'll show you how to make a bamboo bed with very basic hand tools and without the use of any metal nails or screws.

Splitting bamboo poles, is another basic technique when working with bamboo. Split bamboo is often used in bamboo fences, wall decoration, furniture, etc. The applications are endless and it basically all depends on your own creativity.

Bending bamboo, isn't that difficult. In case of freshly cut, green bamboo you could even dry bamboo in a mold to adjust the shape, or by applying heat. However, once dry, bamboo cannot be bend anymore (in a permanent lasting shape that is), unless you apply a special technique that we explain in this article!

Although it is widely assumed that the original Australian aboriginal didgeridoos where made from termite hollowed eucalyptus wood, traditionally it is suggested that the first didgeridoos were in fact made from bamboo.

In 2010, the Larenstein University in The Netherlands performed an interesting study comparing mechanical properties of bamboo. Guadua and Moso, which are the best and most common bamboos for industrial processing, were used in this research report.