Knobs 288, 289, 290 & 291
These knobs were made from vertical grain Cali™ “Fossilized” Bamboo, product 759148 (blond or natural) and product 759147, heated to a caramel color. Bamboo is not wood, but grass. In this product, strands of bamboo are apparently melded together under heat and pressure with plastic resin. As I recall, Cali claims a Janka number of about 5000, very hard. The material has no give, and the 6mm shaft hole must be cut with a 6.1mm drill, or it would not slide onto a pot shaft. I sanded the hard clear finish off the tops of two flooring samples, obtained from Lowes, a local home and lumber center. Then glued the two together with J-B Weld PlasticWeld epoxy, hoping to match the resin in the bamboo product. This seems to have worked better than ordinary epoxy, since none of these happened to split apart.
Bamboo is not hardwood. It can crumble if hit the wrong way, splitting along the grain.
The side grain can have a little iridescence, but note how the end grain of the bamboo looks like micro leopard spots. The contrasting grains make a convenient rotation pointer. These were finished with Minwax Polycrylic water-based acrylic finish. The average size is about 0.64” tall x 0.8” diameter.
© 2017 Don Baker dba android originals LC