Be carefull when splitting bamboo. The sharp edges will cut easily and the fibers will give you splinters that are painful. Use work gloves when splitting bamboo!
You will need -
Machete
Mallet
Gloves
Bamboo
Our machete is extemely dull. You do not need or want a sharp edge. The blunt edge will force the bamboo apart and will make splitting easier.
Cut the bamboo to the length you want. Try to find cane that is fairly straight. Place the butt of the bamboo against a solid object such as a wall. Place the machete on the smaller end, in the middle. Tap with the mallet until the blade is started then give it a good whack driving it into the bamboo cane. While holding the handle tap the top and end of blade forcing it down into the cane. Hold both end of the machate, hand on top of the blade and pull the blade down into the cane, splitting it. Once you have the bamboo split for a couple of feet it gets easier.
Some bamboo may be curved. By choosing which way to split at the end you can minimize curved split canes. If the blade is going to one side instead of the middle, lay the cane on the ground and pull up on the thinner side while tapping the blade to split it further. This will tend to even out the splitting.
Bamboo canes naturally taper. Some species taper more than others and different sections of the same cane will taper differently. This means the split halves will be narrower at one end than the other. When using these split pieces alternate the ends and it will even out as you place them on a fence or wall. There will be pieces of the nodes still attached. You can remove these or not, they have no strenght at this point.
Once you have two halves these can easily be split giving you four splits or “slats” from one cane. To split the half pieces, place them on a flat surface with a piece of wood under the bamboo. Place the machete at the narrow end and tap it to start a straight split down the middle.
Bamboo can be split into extremely small fibers. It is used extensively in basket making. Try using a short piece of “internode”, the section between the joints of nodes in bamboo. When cutting small sections you will need a thinner blade. The bamboo being split by my helper here is Japanese Timber Bamboo, P. bambusoides.
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