Got some bamboo flooring-help!

[Don Armstrong]

I bought a piece of bamboo flooring from the guy that supplies my hickory. He cut the tongue and groove off and cut it into. I have 2 six foot pieces about 1 5/8" wide and will be 7/16" thick after removing the grooves. It has the grain running up the length so it should make a bow. Will I have to back the bow. Would hickory or bamboo be better and do you tiller bamboo just like other woods. Thanks for any help. Don

[Cody Roiter]

Don I would go with the bamboo is the bow all bamboo if its a backing you tiller the belly wood.
cody

[Don Armstrong]

Thanks Cody, I think I'll do bamboo. Don

[Jeremy]

Your best bet is to back the bow.  I've done a few boo backed boo bows.  Tiller it just as you would any other bow, but expect it to take more set - the flooring doesn't even have the compression strength of red oak.  
If it were my money, I'd back it with hickory and keep the raw boo to back a better belly wood.
Even severely tortured pieces didn't fail in compression - they just took more set.

[sulphur]

may you could consider a tri-lam bow.  go with hickory, boo-floo, and cherry for the belly.  should make a great combo.  lets us know how it turns out.

[Springbuck]

Hickory would be a good backing.

  Bamboo is fine, too, but Jeremy has experience that many of us do.  The best boo-backed boofloo's I did were tri-lams glued up in two stages; backing and core glued in pretty decent R/D profile (lots of reflex) and then glued again into a more moderate profile when the belly was added.  This takes best advantage of the Perry reflex principle.

  If you have vert lam boofloo, you can also rough tiller and then pull it into a mild reflex with a thin hickory or fabric back.

  Keep the bow a little long, since your blanks are not all that wide, and make the tips stiff, narrow and deep.  Boofloo bows shoot very softly in the hand and are really smooth to pull, if tillered right..