Coments Needed on Use of Purple Bamboo

staffwalker · Post by **staffwalker** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:40 pm

How in the heck do you guys sand the junctions between purple bamboo and stem/shank? On the purple I just worked with, the purple color was contained in a very, very thin outer skin about the thickness of a human hair . Just the slightest touch of any grade of sandpaper courser than 600 will cut through the purple and expose the white underneath. I finally did a fairly good job but it took forever to do so. There has to be a way to sand these junctions I see too many expensive purple bamboo pipes from the established makers on the net.

This was my first try and perhaps not all purple has a skin that thin. I'll post pics soon.

bob gilbert

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:14 pm

That sounds like a tough one to me, Bob. The only suggestion that comes to mind is staining the sanded area. Obviously, this will require some stain mixing to get the right colour.

staffwalker · Post by **staffwalker** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:22 pm

I did cover up a couple of small booboos but for some strange reason the purple doesn't want to accept stain. Even when I tried black there is still a light area where I sanded through the purple covering. On the other hand, when I tried a test stain on regular bamboo it accepted the stain readily. Funny stuff, purple bamboo.

bob gilbert