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:

http://home.comcast.net/~kvaughn65/bamboo_bowl.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~kvaughn65/laminations.jpg

Bowl is 7 1/2" by 1 1/2" -- sanded to 600 grit with a single coat of
microcrystalline wax. Top layer strips are 5/16" wide, middle layer
strips are a little over 1/8" wide, and the bottom layer strips are
3/16" wide.

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