We have spent a lot of time on bamboo in this blog. If you’re wondering why, it’s because bamboo is such a new product and it can be greatly misunderstood. That and the fact that we’re learning more about bamboo every day as well, and this blog is all about sharing what we’ve come across in our day-to-day business.
Bamboo, being a type of flooring from the east, and technically being a grass rather than a hardwood, has some unique terminology that up to now, we’ve not been familiar with. For instance, the “knuckles”, as I refer to them, that we see in bamboo instead of knots in hardwoods, are actually known as nodes. A bamboo stalk itself is known as a culm.
While all of that is a little different from what we are used to, it’s the term “carbonized” that really throws me. It describes a product that is darker than the so-called “natural” bamboo. For a product that is supposed to be extremely friendly to the environment, the term “carbonized” sounds as though this particular product produces, or is produced from carbon gases, when neither is really the case. Carbonizing is the process in which the strips of bamboo are boiled, bringing the natural sugars to the surface. It seems to me that the term “carmelizing” would serve us better, and reflect the fact that it is simply changing the color of bamboo not affecting the environment. We’ve grown to use the terms interchangeably here for just that reason.
Strandwoven is another term that is new to most of us. It reflects the actual weaving together of strands of bamboo, which are then compressed. The result is a floor that has a much more varied pattern to it and, because of being glued under such compression, unusual hardness. While bamboo is harder than oak or maple, the strandwoven bamboo is almost twice as hard as the other varieties.
If you’ve run into any other unusual terms about bamboo, we’d love to hear what you’ve heard of. viagra