During my monthly rounds to the thrift stores I came across an interesting kitchen cutting board -- made entirely from laminated bamboo strips in 3 layers. Price was $2, and with my senior discount I paid $1. The laminations were intriguing to me and I decided to see if I could turn a shallow bowl from it. Here is the result:
Bamboo has a distinctive, but not unpleasant odor when you cut it. It is very hard and very abrasive -- this may be partly due to the glue used in the laminations. I found it easier to use a thick round nose scraper to turn the inside of the bowl -- this gave long thin shavings, but required frequent honing of the tools edge (which was not turned to a hook).
Kind of fun, but I wouldn't want to work with bamboo very often.
Ken Vaughn