High grade action boo!

[Kirkll]

I’ve been searching a long time for more high grade carbonized vertical grain bamboo, and I finally hit the jackpot! 

This flooring material is just under 3/4” thick and has very thin laminations compared to most everything I have ever purchased. I’m considering buying some volume of this material to get a better price, and be able to supply other bowyers that do not want to buy the stuff by the case and pay the shipping cost.

This is the best I’ve seen in years…. Please let me know if you are interested in some of this asap. And what quantity. I can sell it in boards , or rip it into into strips.


Check this out….   Kirk

[Crooked Stic]

So you think it will be better performing or what?

[Kirkll]

So you think it will be better performing or what?

Absolutely!   Same weight, higher deflection rate with the thinner lams, with additional torsional stability.  It’s a win win upgrade. I’m jazzed about it. This stuff is getting hard to find. There are only a few manufacturers that build the stuff any more, and the flooring is getting thinner all the time, and they mill half of it with that “click it” style instead of T&G,and ya waste material milling it.

I’m going to load up myself and quit sweating trying to find good stuff to build my limbs from…. All bamboo is not created equally and there are huge differences from one batch to the next.      Kirk

[Smguinnip]

Kirk, I would be interested in getting some of the precut strips from ya, probably not a huge quantity though.

[Kirkll]

Well i've got my first batch of this stuff almost milled into .120 thick X 1.75". I'm seriously happy with the quality, and havent found a single flaw in any of the laminations.

I'm going to sell this stuff for $250 per 100 pc lots, or $60 per 20 piece bundles if i get enough orders. If there isn't enough interest, i'm not going to buy a larger quantity and you guys are going to miss out on some quality material.    Kirk

[Crooked Stic]

Kirk have you used any of the planks from Rosewood or Big Jim's. Just by looking at the pics I can't see a lot of difference.

[Kirkll]

I have no idea where they get their bamboo, or the manufactures name Mike. But here is the difference between the material that you commonly find out there, besides being high grade carbonized moso bamboo... look at the laminations closely....

This is the best i've ever seen for action bamboo, and i've handled a lot of it over the years. i used to do flooring, and replaced a lot of low grade bamboo floors with higher grade stuff. So i've done my research.

[Jon Lipovac]

Im interested Kirk.  Can you give me the dimensions and weight of a single lam?
I bought some flooring a while back that was carbonized, but it was the woven bamboo. Super strong but heavy IMO

[Kirkll]

Im interested Kirk.  Can you give me the dimensions and weight of a single lam?
I bought some flooring a while back that was carbonized, but it was the woven bamboo. Super strong but heavy IMO

Yup…. I found the same to be true for the Fossilized bamboo I bought. Super strong, good deflection, and higher compression properties. I’m sure that has something to do with the way it’s impregnated with epoxy resin as the press it together. I have built quite a few bows using it, but had to keep the lams thinner to mitigate the mass weight.

I could try weighing two separate lams on my arrow scale and see what the difference is……. it’s noticeably lighter weight.     Kirk

[Jon Lipovac]

My mistake. The stuff i bought was Fossilized as you mention, not Carbonized.
Made a decent shooting bow and seemed to be quiet. Just heavier mass weight than it needs to be for the application

[Crooked Stic]

Kirk first of all I am not knocking your productI am not there to see it and have no idea where you got it. I just was on the phone with Rosewood Shop inquiring about their actonboo. They told me that they took over the imports from Northwest bamboo a well known company by bowyers. So it is Moso I bought from them years ago.
The only thing I am saying is we don't need to jump thru hoops trying to find good bamboo when it is already on the market. Even available to you also.

[Kirkll]

Hey Stic... All i'm doing is offering to share an exceptional high grade product that i found locally with bowyers that appreciate it. if you don't, it's your loss....

I'm going to run over to the distributor and pick up a few more cases of this to have on hand. i have a feeling once a few guys use this stuff, they will want more.

Building high quality limbs for these bows is all about splitting hairs, and if using high quality products can give you an edge, it would be silly to pass it up. I'm not making any money on this either. Just covering my cost and sharing what i've found to be an excellent product with others. No hoops to jump through at all...   Kirk

[Crooked Stic]

Not a problem Kirk that was my 2 cents

[onetone]

Gotta say Rosewood bamboo is very good quality and I will continue to use it! But it is also sensible to be on the lookout for materials that preform better …

[Kirkll]

Well I picked up 3 more cases today so I have something to work with now.

 I can do custom tapers out of this material for those of you who don’t grind their own lams, or even build taper sleds from it too. I think this stuff would hold up well as a sled.

Kirk

Btw…. Stic…….You can have your two cents back. It wasn’t asked for, or appreciated.

[Crooked Stic]

 : : I am sorry Kirk if my 2 cents offended you 

[Tim Finley]

Action boo was something John at Old master crafters came up with , it was junk the lams were so fine that as soon as you put pressure on your air hose it would split   some lams split just being in a dry shop. It was a failure .

[Kirkll]

My mistake. The stuff i bought was Fossilized as you mention, not Carbonized.
Made a decent shooting bow and seemed to be quiet. Just heavier mass weight than it needs to be for the application

I've already given you these numbers by phone, but for the sake of sharing info, this new stuff weighs 1104 grains for a 35 7/8" 1.75x .090 par lam, the same exact lam using the fossilized material is 1526 grains.

The difference in the deflection strength is 5/8" on the fossilized, and 1" on the carbonized material. So the fossilized stuff is considerably stronger..... But If you compare 5/8 vs 8/8 in deflection  & 1104 vs 1526 in weight you are looking at pretty close to the same strength per weight ratio, but .....the heavier material is much thinner now to get the same strength, and your stack height lower.... So i wouldn't write this heavier mass weight material off at all.

There are other properties to consider using the Fossilized material to take into account too. This material doesn't take a set like carbonized bamboo does. It has a much higher janka rating, and much higher compression qualities. It also gives a lighter draw weight recurve more torsional stability too. I've built a quite a few bows now using the fossilized material and its held up well. but i believe it does better in lighter draw weight recurves than heavier draw weights for performance vs carbonized bamboo.

The deflection tests is .090 thick material at 10" using a 3 ounce weight.

Food for thought.....  Kirk

[Kirkll]

Action boo was something John at Old master crafters came up with , it was junk the lams were so fine that as soon as you put pressure on your air hose it would split   some lams split just being in a dry shop. It was a failure .

If you are referring to using this on board bows without glass or carbon backing with inadequate pressure strips, i could see this stuff not holding up to serious air hose pressure....

But .... You are way off base saying action boo is junk. This stuff has proven to be very hard to beat used in composite bows of many designs, and used by many bowyers.    Kirk

Btw... You are right about one thig Tim. The market was flooded years ago with cheap laminated bamboo flooring that WAS junk.... It was mass produced and sold cheap at lumber liquidators and a lot of flooring shops for a few years until it all started coming apart. I was doing a lot of remodeling in those days, and I replaced a lot of those junk bamboo floors with high quality stuff. That was what got me into researching high quality bamboo flooring material, and it came in handy as i started building bows.   its also the purpose of this thread.... All bamboo is not created equally. 

[Crooked Stic]

100 percent actionboo is NOT junk. Has been proven Tobe a good core material. And in most cases more consistent with a known stack to hit target weight than regular wood.