We are lucky to have two stands of bamboo; a huge one with thick canes, and a more modest one. Here’s a photo of some of the canes I cut from the big one, with the stand in the distance. I’m no judge of height but some of the canes are taller than many trees, and that’s actually a problem as the big stand is now shading an old ‘fruit forest’, with the result that the fruit trees are tall and spindly instead of pick-able.
So I don’t feel at all bad about cutting down some canes, and they’re really useful. I’ve mainly used them so far for stakes and fence posts, but I can envisage a few more ambitious constructions, and maybe a few vertical elements for the garden. The great thing about a resource like this is you can just have a go, and if it doesn’t work, knock it down, re-use the canes, and try again if you want.
Like any wood, I gather bamboo should be seasoned before use, which is why these six are sitting in the paddock, but the ones I used earlier were pretty easy to handle in a fairly raw state. I just stripped off the branchlets (there’s a big bunch at each node) then for stakes made an oblique cut in-between nodes for the pointy ends, and a transverse cut at the appropriate node. I could churn out a dozen stakes, of various diameters, in short time.
My friend Jim says a Japanese draw saw is the way to go for cutting, and he’s said he will look out for one up in Brisbane. There’ll be no stopping me if I get that. I wonder if I can make a retaining wall……