I recently stumbled across a rather interesting article on bamboo fiber produced from Neosinocalamus affinis. There is a lot of good information on the natural production of fibers which some people have argued can't be produced from bamboo. One statement caught my eye:
At present, there are two ways to utilize bamboo in the textile industry in China [2]. One is to produce natural fiber from bamboo by chemical and physical treatment (this material is called bamboo fiber). Since a single bamboo fiber is 2 mm in length, it is usually in the form of a fiber bundle.In this paper, “bamboo fiber” means a fiber bundle. The other method is to spin the regenerated fiber after the bamboo is retted into bamboo pulp (this material is called bamboo pulp fiber). Since the latter has a similar processing method to viscose, the structures and the properties of bamboo pulp fiber could be predicted well.
There may be enough information in the article to make some bamboo fiber at home. A nice diagram shows the steps involved in making the fiber. The bamboo is split into strips, then there is an alkali degumming step using caustic soda. This is followed by an acid rinse in Glacial acetic acid and then water rinsing, dewatering, shaking drying and combing.
Anyway, I have a copy of the article in pdf format and will email it to anyone who wants it.
The legal issues that will arise when the undead walk the earth are legion, and addressing them all is well beyond what could reasonably be accomplished in this brief Essay. Indeed, a complete treatment of the tax issues alone would require several volumes.
Dan, I'd really like to have a copy of the article. One of my cousins is a weaver and has recently started using "retted" bamboo fiber, and I'd like to know more about it. Thanks.
David Arnold
Middle Tennessee Bamboo Farm
USDA zone 6b
Hi Foxd,
I would also like to one for my collection. I really want to know such interesting information about bamboo....
If you have some other information's regarding bamboo I'd love to have those also...
Thanks a lot Dan....
I got your mail including the link to download that informative pdf over fiber bamboo.
That pdf is so interesting and contains a lot information regarding fiber bamboo. This will definitely help me out in knowing the other important uses of the bamboo tree and how much special it is for us....