I have cured bamboo before in making hiking sticks, cane fishing poles, and wind chimes... with excellent results! Bamboo is such an awesome material, it's so light and strong. I now plan on making a push pole for my little bateau. Here's what I've learned in my limited experience:
FYI - People always think you need to dry it out, but that only makes it brittle. It needs to be cured!
1) When choosing your bamboo, look for the stalks that are not bright green (indicates newer growth = thinner walls). You'll want to find one that's the right diameter - both comfortable to grip but with a large enough inner diameter to insert attachments into the ends. Cut the bamboo down with a hacksaw as low to the ground as possible. Once down, trim all of the branches and cut the top off at your desired length.
2) We will be curing the bamboo with high heat, but this will cause pressure to build up inside each of the compartments ("internodes") of the stalk, resulting in a loud pop and splitting the bamboo. To avoid this, we need to equalize the pressure by drilling a small hole into each compartment ("internode") - there should be one hole between each joint ("node"). Making hiking sticks in the past (where you don't want to see a bunch of holes), I have used a 2-foot-long drill bit to drill through the nodes from each end (and a piece of rebar to punch through that last middle one that the bit wouldn't reach). However, I believe for a push-pole, you would desire the small holes as an access point for injecting expanding foam.
3) Now it's time for the heat treatment! The curing process changes the bamboo at the molecular level, making it as strong as wood! Basically, the sugars in the sap are cooked and turn to "glue." Get a few old rags you don't care about (you'll be throwing them away when you're done) and purchase a large propane torch (that hooks to a standard propane tank). Set the bamboo stalk across a couple of sawhorses in a safe area.
4) Starting at one end of the stalk, heat-blast a 2-foot section at a time all the way around, rotating the pole with your free hand. As you cook it, you'll notice that with every pass the color changes like you were spray-painting it (first light green, then yellow, then tan, then brown, then darker). Once you start to get a golden brown and the black sap is bubbling to the surface, you're there (but you can keep going to make it darker if you want to). The key here is to get it the color you want and set down the torch asap to wipe that sap! The stuff will dry quickly and you're pole will be covered in little black bumps (useful as a grip if you so desire). Using your rag, wipe the sap all over the area that you just cooked - it will leave a shiny gloss finish!
5) Move down the stalk working in 2-foot sections. Once complete, do a quick heat-blast from one end to the other and follow by wiping the sap from one end to the other to even it out. You can also over-cook areas to get unique color splotching affects, but keep the torch moving quickly so they appear random. Let it cool, and you're done!
6) At this point, I'm going to inject expanding foam into the entire body, leaving some space at each end for attachments. Going to go with some sort of boat hook attachment on the top, with a duck foot attachment at the bottom. Also going to use the foot of the pole to plant a spike anchor.
Here's a pic of the finished product, I found a piece that conformed nicely to the curve of the boat. I'll take some closer pics and post them soon.
FYI - People always think you need to dry it out, but that only makes it brittle. It needs to be cured!
1) When choosing your bamboo, look for the stalks that are not bright green (indicates newer growth = thinner walls). You'll want to find one that's the right diameter - both comfortable to grip but with a large enough inner diameter to insert attachments into the ends. Cut the bamboo down with a hacksaw as low to the ground as possible. Once down, trim all of the branches and cut the top off at your desired length.
2) We will be curing the bamboo with high heat, but this will cause pressure to build up inside each of the compartments ("internodes") of the stalk, resulting in a loud pop and splitting the bamboo. To avoid this, we need to equalize the pressure by drilling a small hole into each compartment ("internode") - there should be one hole between each joint ("node"). Making hiking sticks in the past (where you don't want to see a bunch of holes), I have used a 2-foot-long drill bit to drill through the nodes from each end (and a piece of rebar to punch through that last middle one that the bit wouldn't reach). However, I believe for a push-pole, you would desire the small holes as an access point for injecting expanding foam.
3) Now it's time for the heat treatment! The curing process changes the bamboo at the molecular level, making it as strong as wood! Basically, the sugars in the sap are cooked and turn to "glue." Get a few old rags you don't care about (you'll be throwing them away when you're done) and purchase a large propane torch (that hooks to a standard propane tank). Set the bamboo stalk across a couple of sawhorses in a safe area.
4) Starting at one end of the stalk, heat-blast a 2-foot section at a time all the way around, rotating the pole with your free hand. As you cook it, you'll notice that with every pass the color changes like you were spray-painting it (first light green, then yellow, then tan, then brown, then darker). Once you start to get a golden brown and the black sap is bubbling to the surface, you're there (but you can keep going to make it darker if you want to). The key here is to get it the color you want and set down the torch asap to wipe that sap! The stuff will dry quickly and you're pole will be covered in little black bumps (useful as a grip if you so desire). Using your rag, wipe the sap all over the area that you just cooked - it will leave a shiny gloss finish!
5) Move down the stalk working in 2-foot sections. Once complete, do a quick heat-blast from one end to the other and follow by wiping the sap from one end to the other to even it out. You can also over-cook areas to get unique color splotching affects, but keep the torch moving quickly so they appear random. Let it cool, and you're done!
6) At this point, I'm going to inject expanding foam into the entire body, leaving some space at each end for attachments. Going to go with some sort of boat hook attachment on the top, with a duck foot attachment at the bottom. Also going to use the foot of the pole to plant a spike anchor.
Here's a pic of the finished product, I found a piece that conformed nicely to the curve of the boat. I'll take some closer pics and post them soon.
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