Greetings from Finland, the North-East corner of Europe.
I, with a couple of friends, ordered some black bamboo some months ago from Denmark. Those guys have done some preliminary bending tests and looks like this stuff is weaker than common moso bamboo. I have not seen this bamboo species before so I don’t know how it should look like. Now the colour of the slices inside and core side is grayish or bluish, not white like moso. Looks like molded… perhaps stored too long in moist conditions… or perhaps the colour is normal…
Anyway, I have a test bow just now under process to see how this works. I’m going to make an English Longbow stylish bow: Black bamboo back, European Yew core slice and Osage Orange (from Hungary) belly. My aim is to make it 75” long and some 85 lbs @ 28” with water buffalo horn nocks and arrow strike plate.
Pictures and end result later…