Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

HollowWoodTone · 2009-04-05 01:45:31

Hello all! I’m in need of your knowledge today. I’m in the process of learning how to make me and possibly for you a shakuhachi . My question is about the first step which comes after harvesting bamboo, and it is curing it. So, on one of the websites I have found a method which suggests to “french fry” it:
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French Fried

For the adventurous, there’s an intriguing wood treatment which bypasses most of the traditional bamboo drying/treatment processes and that’s to french-fry the green culm in hot non-catalyzed tung oil. Cut the culm and drill out the nodes. Heat a tube of oil to about 350 F. Introduce the green culm. When all boiling and other activity ceases cut the heat and allow the oil to cool with the culm submerged.

Here’s what happens: All moisture is expelled as it’s turned into steam and escapes as bubbles. All lignin in the wood is hardened as the oil temperature is above its hardening point. All the surface waxes will be melted and removed. During the cool-down period any air which was greatly expanded at 350 F. contracts and atmospheric pressure drives the oil into the wood. Wipe all excess oil from your culm and submit to the standard 3 month drying period.

The result will be bamboo which has had it’s starches and sugars stabilized, all moisture removed and be thoroughly impregnated with hardened linoxyn. The wood will be markedly hardened and strengthened—being waterproof, dent proof, etc. The modulus of elasticity will drop considerably and the material will become even more rigid and ‘musical’. The major component of a Stradivarius violin is the treated wood of the top plate. It’s acoustical properties are what we recognize as exceptional sound. Once the culm has cured, craft a flute in your usual manner.
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I have decided to try this method, but I have no clue how the Tung Oil is going to react when boiled and the biggest question is what can I boil it in (a metal tube of sorts, but which one and where to get it...) and then stick a bamboo pole in this tube to fully submerge it in the oil. And this is where I need your help guys. Keep in mind that bamboo for Shakuhachi Flute is usually bent, so the tube has to be large enough to fit all the ranges of bamboo – up to 6 inches wide (counting bends at the root part) and up to 3 feet long if making Taimus .

Has anyone tried frying it. Any ideas?

Thanks a lot.

Toby · 2009-04-05 07:08:41

Just a reminder that acoustically significant vibration of the bamboo does not occur in a shakuhachi, so there will be no change in "acoustical properties". However if it stabilizes the bamboo, so much the better. OTOH I have never heard of this being done with a shakuhachi, and since it is a simple procedure it makes me wonder why none of the respected makers have ever used it. I suspect that one doesn't really want to reduce the modulus of elasticity or make the bamboo hard, as this might well make it more brittle and susceptible to cracking.

Good luck,
Toby

Jeff Cairns · 2009-04-05 08:51:49

Another reason why 'respected makers' wouldn't use that method is time. It may not take much time to do one piece, but when one is doing aburanuki on many pieces which a harvester would typically do, either a very big vat would be needed to do many pieces at once to cut the time/piece down， or many smaller vats to achieve the same ends because the process demands that the bamboo cools submerged in the oil. Heat, boil, cool, heat, boil, cool, etc.= way too much time.
When doing the traditional aburanuki process, the bamboo isn't generally cut any more than it was in the grove before it was removed from the ground, the nodes aren't knocked out and one piece typically takes about 20 - 30 minutes. It can be done in a small area (sometimes even indoors) and the work process is continual until all pieces are done.

Toby · 2009-04-06 08:42:16

On the other hand, after the traditional process the bamboo has to stabilize--for up to a decade--before the maker starts to work on it (at least traditionally). The tung oil method would cut down that time by about 9 years, 11 months and 28 days...

If it were worth doing I think it would have been done.

Toby

Last edited by Toby (2009-04-06 08:43:18)

EricSwain · 2009-04-14 19:23:18

I have tried two flutes that were boiled in oil. I used peanut (dont do it) and had some stickyness problems that took over two years to go away. When they would get hot the oil would ooz out the ends of the flute.

Good luck finding a container big enough to boil an entire flute. I cut mine down to two pieces and rejoined then back after. The boiling process also seems to promote cracking while it is boiling, though I didnt have a problem with either flute afterward though.

WARNING: The oil boils out the inside of the flute and the outside so when you first put the flute in the oil it will shoot out the end. It would really suck to get sprayed with boiling tung oil.

Windsiu · 2009-04-16 23:38:46

I'd think the bamboo would crack open as soon as it gets submerged in the boiling oil. The bamboo has lots of moisture in the wood and when heated to a high temperature too fast it it might explode.

EricSwain · 2009-05-26 18:01:53

It might crack but most of the boiling action occured on the ends of the bamboo not out of the skin. I also did it with bamboo that had been dried a bit first.

Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

#1 2009-04-05 01:45:31

Boiling Bamboo Flute Blank in Tung Oil - sugestions on where and how?

#2 2009-04-05 07:08:41

Re: Boiling Bamboo Flute Blank in Tung Oil - sugestions on where and how?

#3 2009-04-05 08:51:49

Re: Boiling Bamboo Flute Blank in Tung Oil - sugestions on where and how?

#4 2009-04-06 08:42:16

Re: Boiling Bamboo Flute Blank in Tung Oil - sugestions on where and how?

#5 2009-04-14 19:23:18

Re: Boiling Bamboo Flute Blank in Tung Oil - sugestions on where and how?

#6 2009-04-16 23:38:46

Re: Boiling Bamboo Flute Blank in Tung Oil - sugestions on where and how?

#7 2009-05-26 18:01:53

Re: Boiling Bamboo Flute Blank in Tung Oil - sugestions on where and how?

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