Bamboo Knives: Crazy, Genius, or in between?

[Gorog]

Yes, its me the bamboo nut again, with a slightly different question, moreso in the form of an opinion. Would a fully solid bamboo knife actually work? Or would it be a dull, useless, clunky waste of money that could do nothing more than look real pretty hanging on the wall? My dear mother actually expressed interest in a product I found by searching eBay, just for kicks, for bamboo knives. It is solid bamboo from the tip of the blade to the handle butt, and my, it does look very pretty, but would it be functional? Sure, the use of wood as a weapon has been WELL documented throughout numerous different cultures world wide. I know bamboo can take an edge, but will it keep it for a while, or will it fall short? Bamboo is very strong, and the way the fibrous wood is configured, I am guessing that the blade can take some abuse, vigorous chopping of vegetables and whatnot, but will it splinter and thereby cause distress to my family if it takes too much or is sharpened wrong or something like that? Well, I'll count on you guys to pull through for me, as always, though, while I am loathe to leave the beloved Cantina, I will take this elsewhere if no one knows and this thread is just useless clutter to the dearest mods of the Cantina. I'll try to include a picture, but I have to FIND it first, ugh...oh, never mind, it came right up! Cheers everyone, have a picture!

 

[BFH44]

for the kitchen it might work better than you think i wouldn't put it in the dish washer if there is any glued seems they will fail in heat - i had some cool bamboo plates that a roommate putt in the dishwasher and it messed up the binding

 

[C.S. Graves]

Fergit the bamboo... I wanna see something made from that African "razor grass".

 

[mohd]

Bamboo Knives: Crazy, Genius, or in between?

Nothing crazy or genious about it

We used bamboo as a cutter or slicer etc since long time ago! Anyhow it's for certain cutting and slicing functions only! It doesn't replace knife in everything! And it's a sort of use and throw away things! Normally we never keep bamboo cutter or slicer for a long long time the way we keep steel knife. We just need to get a suitable type of bamboo and we can make so many cutters or slicers for everybody to use them and then throw them away after use. It doesn't cost one anything but efforts and some works and that's all.

For example we cut soft type of traditional foods such as cakes (i.e. tapioca cake, rice cake, sago cake etc) using bamboo cutter because it's cleaner than carbon steel knife which can easily get rusty. It's just like a plastic cake knife.

The following pictures are "borrowed" from Keong aka Bandel4 of Malaysia Knife Forums

Okay, in fact we make use of bamboo for so many purposes and functions in our cultures (i.e. SEA, India, China, Japan, Korea). Bamboo can be used as tools, weapons, furnitures, kitchenwares, huts, houses, pipes, poles, headgears, music things etc.

mohd

 

[Gorog]

Okay, thanks everyone, I'll see you all later! Peace.

 

[Steely_Gunz]

I think of bamboo knives the same way as I think of plastic lettuce knives. They are functional, non-staining, knives that will work but obviously not hold up to the rigors that steel blades would. That said, I really wouldn't mind having one for my kitchen. They look really cool

 

[JayGoliath]

Okay, in fact we make use of bamboo for so many purposes and functions in our cultures (i.e. SEA, India, China, Japan, Korea). Bamboo can be used as tools, weapons, furnitures, kitchenwares, huts, houses, pipes, poles, headgears, music things etc.

mohd

Don't mean to deviate from the main topic but i wish to share a bit more:

In recent conversation with the weekend jungle people they brought with themselves nothing but rice and parang.
Chop off the bamboo shoots, stuff the caught river fishes/crabs/frogs inside it and just cook under fire and you've got clean food (without chemicals) served inside a bamboo cup and readily disposable.

Young bamboo shoots are delicious when cooked with curry.
http://www.coorgexperiences.orangecounty.in/bamboo-shoot-curry-indulge-yourself/

It's also been magical in anti-bacterial application- Bamboo socks proven to reduce infection in athlete's foot.
http://www.greenearthbamboo.com/Bamboo-Is-Antimicrobial_a/137.htm

Pak, Those lemangs (rice and coconut milk stuffed inside bamboo) are fantabolous with lamb curry!

 

[Gorog]

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing Jay, I'll see you around. peace.

 

[Howard Wallace]

That looks delicious, Jay.

In Sri Lanka I used to have rice dishes served on big leaves. Giant organic disposable paper plates!

 

[mohd]

.. Pak, Those lemangs (rice and coconut milk stuffed inside bamboo) are fantabolous with lamb curry! ..

Yes! I like Lemang very much! I used to make Lemang when I was young at my hometown village! Nicer taste when you add some corn and red bean to the gelatinous rice :thumbup:

And below is a DIY bamboo knife the prehistoric way

[youtube]Q6yJmu5EzJA&NR[/youtube]

mohd

 

[Steely_Gunz]

truly a wealth of knowledge here

 

[Howard Wallace]

... below is a DIY bamboo knife the prehistoric way ...

Thanks Mohd.