got a batch of boo drying. anybody on here ever grind and taper their own Boo?  have you tempered any?  Thanks

I don't grind, but use a planer.  I just separate out in sections, and plane 8" section (near tips) once, then 16" section (mid limb to tips) then 24" section from the handle to tips.  That tapers perfectly.  

I might go over with a belt sander to clean it up

In order for us to be on the same page, you had best specify... do you mean grind and taper one side of a piece of bamboo for backing, with nodes intact on its back? or do you mean to grind/taper both sides of bamboo for use as an internal lamination?

Both. I just cut some green boo and going to make a laminate Boo backed , belly and laminate bow. Looking for info on tempering, sanding or any experience .  Thanks

Probably almost anyone who is backing with boo is grinding down one side, and it's standard to taper it.

I've never ground boo tapers (as in both side being ground down for use as a core or something, but I've been thinking about this as well.

My take is this, unless you already own a nice drum sander it's probably more cost effective to buy material already tapered for a laminated bow.

I built a lam grinder and it works OK. but for what I spent I could have bought a lot of actionboo tapers. I onyl spent like 150 but thats like 10-15 sets of tapers depending on th eprice.

I have sanded one strip to .110 parallel and watching it dry. wondering would it be faster to grind all my laminates to .110 parallel and dry in box? If so what temp? how long?  temper after drying?  or wait a year and air dry the rough split culm?

I haven't dried bamboo out, but i suspect with wood that tin it is not likely to split or anything.

I use a stve drying box with a single 60-75watt bulb and a tiny fan in it. It probably gets to 15-20degrees above the temperature of the room its in ... so not very hot at all.

Others may have advice on how to reduce any warping ... dont know if this is a major issue for bamboo.

I have not worked with bamboo yet for bows so you can do whatever with this bit of information:

When making bamboo flyrods it is very common for the maker to temper / harden the bamboo.  It is often done one of two ways.  The first method is to flame temper.  This is done with a torch and it takes a lot of practice to get it even and done well without scorching.  (Native Americans used to harden their arrows by inserting the tips into the sand right below the fire.)  Heat treating or hardening the wood can also be done with a heat gun.  Some bowyers actually prefer to use a heat gun and then add oil to the wood as they temper it.  This method is discussed in the bowyers bible series #4.  In addition to flame tempering, some bamboo flyrod makers prefer to use an oven and literally bake the bamboo rod sections until tempered.  (Some makers would do this by storing the split bamboo culms in their hot summer attics in sand boxes for years at a time.)  Now days most folks that do this use electric ovens and I know some bowyers that use the same oven that they use to cure the glue and/or to dry out staves.  No matter what heat source and method you choose, it is critical that you know what the moisture content is of the stave that you are attempting to temper before you add heat to it.  Why?  Because the higher the moisture content is, the slower you need to dry it in order to prevent splits, checks and other damage to the wood as you temper it.  This is exactly the reason that there is the old saying that says "use moist heat for moist wood" when using heat to alter the shape of the wood piece.  But remember that heat bending and heat tempering are two totally different things.  If you try to flame temper some "green" wood, it will just explode on you.  The wood first has to be dry to about 10-15% moisture content before you can even attempt to temper it.  The bottom line here is that you need to do two very important things:  1). Do your research before you try to temper any wood  2). Practice first on some similar wood scraps before trying it on a bow.  You will be amazed and how much more you will learn when you do some practice trials first!

Thanks EF!...good read