I've read posts on sawing strips. Does it really work? I just can't see a saw working unless you have perfectly straight culms and the fibers running straight between the nodes? I've been thinking about building something like the Bellinger gang-saw but one thing i've notice about rod building is that I've wasted alot of money on homemade crap that doesn't work. I'm building rods with the Morgan hand mill and even Tom Morgan says "sawed strips work great on the mill". Does someone just need bamboo thats really straight for it to work? what to look for? I really don't care about grain run-out but if i could get strips straight by doing this I'm thinking of building a gang-saw.

I think that most makers that saw strips do so on a band saw. A pin is placed a distance away from the blade and the section of bamboo run between the pin and the blade. That system allows the saw cut to follow the 'grain' of the bamboo.

I read about using a carriage on a table saw and a method that rotates the calm on centers. My bamboo is often way too crooked for something like that to work.

The Bellinger gang saw turns a 1 inch strip of bamboo into 3 strips and eliminates the crooks. I think it is the best way to avoid straightening, providing you have plenty of money to buy or build one. I will someday make one as an accessory to my CNC finish mill... if I get them finished before I croak.

I know of at least one major builder that uses ( or at least they did a few years ago) a table saw system. They also buy large quantities of cane and are very selective about what culm ends up in their saw. That said -- there is much to be said for following the grain.
AgMD