Bamboo Cups, plates, trays etc.

Sep 16, 2018 21 Replies

The thread on Bamboo scaffolding reminded me of some Bamboo cups, plates, trays etc I've seen for sale on various places. I think I first saw them in the Eden Project gift shop but I've seen them in other shops on the high street.



They aren't obviously made from bamboo, they look like melamine. No sign of the original bamboo structure etc.



I'm curious how they are made.



One, obvious, idea is making the bamboo into a fine sawdust, mixing with a bonding agent, and forming the items.



The bamboo socks don't look like bamboo either, they break the cellulose down chemically then make rayon from it

Bamboo plates and cups seems like a totally barmy idea to me. Those of us who remember the late 70s fad for "chicken in a basket" pub meals will no doubt also remember the number of food poisoning cases that stupid idea gave rise to.

They are nothing like woven from strips of bamboo ...

That was the excess quantity of Watneys Red Barrel, Double Diamond etc beer that the customers of establishments that served such abortions also slugged back while the missis sat meekly with a snowball or perry .For many it was their first experiences of eating out apart from their wedding and the odd funeral and the hand washing facilities in pub toilets were still the slice of green soap cut of a slab of the stuff and a roller towel if you were lucky standard, and many blokes never washed their hands anyway. Then came the first trips abroad and feeling sophisticated on their return the blokes started to neck back foreign sounding Lagers produced in Luton ,Warrington etc while the missus got stuck into wine from a box.

GH

Interesting, there maybe a chemical process used to make the plates etc.

We've some, unwanted, bamboo in the garden- it spreads from next door- the stuff grows at a remarkable rate. If you can utilise it, it would be a fantastic source of raw material. (Not on the garden scale!)

As Andy has pointed out, totally different beasts. These look like plastic. Smooth to the touch, not shiny. Actually quite attractive- not cheap looking.

We've not bought any although senior management did seem to like the trays and I'd not be surprised if one is bought before long.

I recently bought a PiDP-8 kit, and they guy who made them up sourced custom cases for them, made from bamboo. Just light coloured, smooth, light wood!

I used to have a bamboo spatula and a pair of bamboo BBQ tongs, both quite obviously made of bamboo wood. I still have the spatula but never use it, while the tongs were constructed of three separate pieces of bamboo and it fell apart on its first trip through the dish washer. I did repair it, but it was a pretty useless item and got dumped several years ago.

Bamboo kitchen worktops look nice, it was a toss-up between that and Iroko recently.

Cheers

I can see it being ideal for that kind of front panel/case etc. I wouldn't have called it wood unless I knew it was bamboo- the items I've seen are more like a plastic.

Moulded layers of bamboo veneer,

With plates and trays its fairly easily done with just a mold top and bottom and sufficiently high pressure.

Cups are probably mouded from various shapes which are arranged into the negative mold by hand.

The various shapes are probably cut out ot the sheets of veneer with lasers to similar degreee of precision as are to be found in the clothing industry.

michael adams

...

Assuming they are made of the same stuff (composition/finish) as the trays/plates I've seen, I quite believe it- they would be similar to the composite worktops that look like plain marble etc.

There are bamboo pet dishes about some of which claim to have an 'anti-bac' quality, probably the more expensive ones. although they don't say where this function comes from. You can't take too much hygiene care when dealing with pets, it too easy to, say, catch fleas from dogs, etc.

Probably Rayon.

formatting link

What is wrong with stainless steel pet dishes that can be easily cleaned?

And then we fitted a magnetically operated cat flap to keep strange cats out.

The quality of the stainless steel was so bad that, when our cat went to eat, the magnet on her collar meant that she was dragging the dishes all tound the room ...

The 'stainless steel' dishes - Made in China, of course - went in the bin and were replaced with porcelain dishes.

Whatever. They feel very nice.

I don't think that the difference between magnetic and non-magnetic stainless steel is a matter of *quality*, just different alloys.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required