5mm bamboo skin

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I've begun using 5mm bamboo (single ply) as a skin layer for projects.

It is very hard (as in: hard on tools), but otherwise very easy to work with. Mistakes are easy to fix - unlike ply, you can sand it back (lots) without destroying the surface. Gaps can be filled invisibly with a mix of PVA glue and its own dust (from sanding).

I've used thinned beeswax as the finish, which was pretty easy / no surprises.

It seems to be almost completely oil and waterproof. The fungus in the picture was caused by a pot plant where the dish was badly glazed (?), so the bamboo surface underneath was constantly quite wet for several months. The water and fungal goo just wiped off - the surface wasn't buckled or distorted at all, only discoloured.

Pros:

excellent surface hardness (Janka rating)
decent strength:weight
waterproof
easy to: glue, fix mistakes, finish surface
very uniform / predictable
natural looking (doesn't look like laminate / plastic)

Cons:

brittle in sheet form (it is intended to be laminated to a substrate)
hard on tools
dense - adds more weight than you might expect
doesn't machine exactly like wood (e.g. you can't use a plane on it)
very fine, sharp splinters

Pictured:

Dual 15" box reskinned with bamboo. Ikea box and CD on top for scale.
Fungus and moisture (present ~3 months)
Fungus spot after very light sanding

Source: Leeto bamboo was the manufacturer, Plyco was the distributor (Melbourne, Australia). Woven was $140 a sheet, natural $90.
 

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Good looking box. I used bamboo for my bathroom floor. Great stuff.

We have some on our kitchen floor. I would caution that its not really as tough as the vendor had suggested - dropping a pan makes quite a big dent.

I think it looks nice though, and its nice to walk on barefoot.

Like the OP, having a structural veneer that can take a bit of sanding is attractive.
 
We have some on our kitchen floor. I would caution that its not really as tough as the vendor had suggested - dropping a pan makes quite a big dent.

The surface hardness depends on species and panel type, with strand woven bamboo being harder than other types by a large margin. The difference is obvious when sanding it - natural bamboo feels more like pine, and generates dust a lot more quickly.

I should do hardness tests on some scraps, and add a photo.

The Bamboo panels I have are visually more like cutting boards than floor boards - they don't have a glossy resin layer / surface treatment. That's why I was surprised at the water & fungal resistance.
 
Depends on the thickness re flooring, A softwood core lamination (which is typical unfortunately) allows for dents in a thin surface veneer. You get what you pay for. Some of the material (bamboo floors) I've seen installed are as hard as our rock maple. That material (maple strip) was used as warehouse flooring here for many years.
 
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