Anyone ever turn knitting needles from bamboo?

[Charlie Schultz]

I have a request for some knitting needles in bamboo. Anyone have any experience with that? Also, anyone know a good source for bamboo blanks? Thanks in advance.

[Curt Fuller]

I think some of the free chopsticks they give you in the Chinese restaurants are made of bamboo and about the size of small knitting needles. I'll bet turning bamboo will be a challenge though keeping it from splitting.

[Gary DeWitt]

Seems like it might be a stringy wood to deal with, even more so than oak or ash, though I haven't turned any of it myself. For a source, if you can find a flooring contractor, laminated bamboo is very popular for flooring right now, thick and long enough for any needle you want to turn. Failing that, a garden shop may carry large bamboo, it would have to be over 2" to get a needle out of it without gluing it up.
Have fun, and post pics!

[Jeff Myers]

Charlie,
I don't know how accessible raw bamboo would be but how about
getting a bamboo cutting board and ripping it at the glue joints???
You can get them in all sizes and thicknesses(saw a bunch at B-B and Beyond recently) and probably find a good thickness that would only require ripping the length into 1"x1"x??(length) that could then be mounted and turned???
I might just try this for some pen blanks and see how it goes.

[Reed Gray]

There should be a bamboo growers group somewhere around where you live, and some of them may have suitable material. The bamboo flooring is made from strips about 1/4 inch thick at most, and may be too thin to use as a knitting needle. Plyboo is available as sheet stock, some of it in 1/4 inch by 72 by 16 inch panels. the panels are edge grain (1/4 inch wide strips) and flat grain (about 3/4 inch wide strips). There are also 1/2 (30 by 72) and 3/4 (4 by 8) sheets. There are 2 colors, natural and amber. I have seen some that looked spalted, but don't know if it is readily avaliable. If you can find a place that recycles pallets, especially ones from Asia, some of them are made from bamboo. It does glue up nicely, sands nicely, and takes finish without any problems. I do prefer a penetrating oil (Deft) for a finish. The hardness is between cherry and oak.I think it could work as knitting needles, but the fibers are very long, and so are the splinters. It does work much better/easier than palm. When cutting cross grain you get a fair amount of splinters. When cutting long grain, the growth knobs/rings/segments are uphill on one side, and down hill on the other. It goes through my planer fine, but a hand plane doesn't work well, at least not in my hands.Oh yes, I don't knit, so don't know how well it could work. I have made some tables from the plyboo, and edged with wenge, walnut, and cherry. It is really beautiful stuff.
robo hippy

[Jeff Myers]

Also, since bamboo is hollow,, the walls are gonna be thin so it'd take laminated blanks probably. Here's a pic of the $40 cutting board from BB&B which is 14" x 20" but it looks like each "row" of that board is made from several thicknesses of bamboo if you look at the edge of that bd. closely.
But that bd. would yield approx. 20 blanks 3/4" x 3/4" x 20" with each blank being 3(maybe 4) layers of bamboo.


48638

[Jim Tobias]

Charlie,
There are bamboo pen blanks, etc. all over ebay. The same vendors will probably have longer lengths. I did a few knitting needles (not from bamboo) and I will say that it is very difficult to get the small diameter with any decent length bacause it begins "whipping" in the middle and you turn it down to final diameter. I was using various woods (cherry, maple, and several exotics) and had to create a "slimline" steady rest to accomodate the narrow diameter of knitting needles. I eventually succeeded but eventually decided it was more time consuming than it was worth.

Jim

[Joe Pelonio]

Normally I don't have much to do with the turning forum, but I saw bamboo and just by accident I just did some bamboo award plaques on the laser for a local company that sells bamboo boards. I have no idea whether they are made in a manner that would allow for turning but if you want to give it a try here are their distributors:

http://www.teragren.com/wholesale_panelveneer_distributors.aspx

And these people stock it:
http://www.longleaflumber.com/bamboo_expanded.cfm

[Jean Holland]

I am a turner and I also knit. I have not thought of turning any knitting needles though as they are not that expensive to purchase. (probably cheaper to purchase than the materials to make) I have an assortment of knitting needles (some of which are bamboo). My thought on turning knitting needles is that it will be really, really technical. The size of the needle determines the size of the stitch. The thickness varies by the cm. Also, sets come in two to five needles. It depends on what you are knitting as to which type and size you would use. Many patterns call for more than one size of needle. Bamboo is the most common wood for wooden knitting needles, but if you cant find bamboo, you can always use another type of wood. However, it should be light weight and have a closed grain so it can be finished semi-smooth (too smooth and the knitter's work will fall off too easily - too rough and the needles will snag the yarn). If you happen to get the finish too smooth, you can always use a piece of sand paper to roughen it up. I sometimes do that to my store bought needles.

Good luck.