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I don't doubt what you're saying, but I wonder why my bamboo ski poles don't crack. I have lots of them, and they've been used every winter for nearly forty ye
by Tor3 8y ago
I don't doubt what you're saying, but I wonder why my bamboo ski poles don't crack. I have lots of them, and they've been used every winter for nearly forty years, from back when I bought them. They're as good as new, still. I bought all the stock of the last shop selling them at the time, in my student town, as I didn't want to use fiber or metal poles in the mountains (can't easily be fixed if they break, while bamboo poles can be fixed if they split, and, with some tape, can even be prevented from breaking in the first place).
- RobertRoberts 8y agoI am sure they are treated differently? Just a guess, but maybe with an epoxy?
- Laforet 8y agoBamboo is anisotropic like timber, which means that expansion and contraction caused by drying or temperature variation will happen at different rates along the tangential, longitutional and radial axis. Crack happens when stress exceed the tensile strength of the material in one direction. Thus a long and thin object is less vulnerable to this type of failure as only one axis undergoes a significant change in size. In addition, the bamboo ski poles may have been thoroughly dried by kiln heating and sealed with some type of resin or lacquer to prevent moisture ingress, especially if they were made to get wet.
- Tor3 8y agoI suspect you are correct in your assumptions in the last paragraph, at least about being kiln heated. That seems very likely. There is also a thin layer of something, could be resin or lacquer as you suggest. It is definitely not epoxy though (re. next poster)
- Laforet 8y agoThe other poster was probably thinking about bamboo fibre-epoxy composite which is more like fibreglass. I vaguely remember the sealant is not really food safe, which is why many bambio utensils still crack after a few years.
- RandallBrown 8y agoThere are a few companies making new bamboo ski poles. Panda Poles and Soul Poles are two that I see regularly on the mountain.