Post #252457 by ZuluMagoo on Tue, Sep 5, 2006 1:18 PM

I started working with the bamboo trim last weekend. When I got all of the poles home, I remembered a tip that Bamboo Ben posted quite a while back about 'enchacing' the poles with a handheld propane torch. So I went down to the local Walmart and bought a $12 torch and started experimenting.

Here is a pole, half treated, half untreated.

Here you can clearly see the difference in the poles. I really liked the treated look, so I finished off all of my poles. Note - treating the poles requires a big time investment. It took nearly 18 man-hours to finish approximately 40 1" diameter poles (8' to 12' in length).

Several of the poles required that they be spilt to mount on the wall as trim. For the poles that were not already cracked, I cut the end with a handsaw and then pushed a machette down the length of the pole. Some of the nodes were quite strong, so I just wacked the machette 2 or 3 times with a hammer. Not all of the poles evenly split into halves. But when mounted on the wall, I couldn't tell the difference and it also made each pole a little more individual so they would not all look the same.

Mounting the split poles was very easy once I found a system. I pre-drilled a hole in the split pole to keep it from cracking, then using 2" drywall screws and a stud finder, I screwed the pole into place on the wall into the wooden studs. I only needed 2 to 3 screws for each pole to secure them in place.

Work continues with more trim then the ceiling poles.

[ Edited by: zulumagoo 2006-09-05 19:48 ]