Back to your question about it's usability -

first, there's several kinds of bamboo that you can use. We have a store in seattle that does importation, so I'm going to use the relative prices here to illustrate what I mean.


There's a hollow core bamboo that is about 6$ for a 16 foot pole. There's a SOLID core one for 7$ or 8$ - my point is that the solid core ones really aren't that much more. If you are going to be trying to bend them a little or a lot, first, use water to soak them and then dry them out in the shape you want. Use some duct-tape banding around the ends to prevent splitting - bamboo cuts aren't too fun.

You're probably not wanting a thickness much more than 1.5" max - while you can go huge, the stuff is strong enough not to need to.

Also - when you talk to them on the phone, explain what you are doing and ask them to pick out a bunch of straight ones (if you need straight) - because otherwise they'll send you whatever poles, assuming that you are cutting them up, etc.

;-b