Appearance of Bamboo Furniture
Appearance of Bamboo
Highly attractive, exotic and inviting, the beauty of bamboo is one of its most enduring qualities.
The Coloring Process
Natural shades reflect the natural color of the bamboo. Carbonized shades are darker shades of bamboo achieved through a heating process. When bamboo is heated, the carbonized grains take on a color that is darker throughout. This is not a stain, but rather the result of the heating process. The resulting color is an amber hue.
Carbonized bamboo is slightly softer than natural bamboo. Because bamboo is a natural fiber, slight variations exist from crop to crop. These variations are a little more noticeable in carbonized bamboo than in natural bamboo. While scratches are not easily noticed in either natural or carbonized bamboo, they may be slightly more noticeable in carbonized. It should be noted that carbonized bamboo is carbonized all the way through, not just at the surface level like a stained floor. Whether natural or carbonized, bamboo is gorgeous.
Finish
JmxBamboo indoor furniture is coated with a glossy protective varnish to prevent marring from daily use.
JmxBamboo outdoor funiture is finished with a vegatable oil mix, which can permeate the inner plank. This finish protects the furniture to a certain extent from exposure to the weather.
Both finishes protect the bamboo and enhance its unique grain and color.
|
Ecology
Ecological Benefits of Bamboo
Along with bamboo being the most stylish alternative to traditional materials, the decision to purchase bamboo products is an ecologically responsible choice. It is the most environmentally sound plant, used for production of various products, in the world.
Bamboo is a grass and not a product derived from forestry. It has a short growth cycle of approximately five years, depending on the variety. As a result, bamboo is considered a highly renewable and sustainable product that saves our ever-dwindling hardwood forest.
Bamboo stalks can grow to be as high as 50 feet and several inches thick. Due to the inter-connected root system, bamboo groves fully regenerate at a faster rate than timber. Such a process promotes the extension of bamboo roots and the growth of new canes. This characteristic differentiates bamboo from timber in development and utilization projects in that it benefits the ecological balance and preserves forest reserves. Replanting is not needed and the forest continues to flourish.
Bamboo can be harvested and replenished with virtually no impact to the environment, as well as grown in soil damaged by overgrazing or poor agricultural techniques. Unlike most trees, improper harvesting does not kill the bamboo plant, which allows for the topsoil to stay in place. Additionally, because of its dense litter on the forest floor, it actually feeds the topsoil over time. This plant's rapid growth produces a yield 25 times higher than that of timber and, with selective annual harvesting, has the capability of complete regeneration without a need to replant. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth, growing over 30% faster than the fastest growing tree.
JMX Bamboo is GreenSpec listed. LEED Credits are MR Credit 6 - Rapidly Renewable Materials. Our formaldehyde emissions are less than .5%, surpassing E1 standards.
|
About Bamboo
Bamboo is one of the most beautiful, long-lasting, environmentally friendly and unique products in the market today. Every day more people are discovering the seemingly endless benefits of bamboo molding because of its durability, stability, exotic appearance and environmentally friendly nature.
Our pre-finished bamboo molding has many enduring qualities:
• Factory applied multi-coat aluminum oxide finish
• Easy to maintain and clean—never needs waxing
• Lifetime structure/ 10-year finish warranty
• Natural, elegant and beautiful
• Ecologically friendly
• Easy to install (nail or glue)
• Competitively priced
• 25% harder than Red Oak, 12% harder than Rock Maple
• More dimensionally stable than commonly used wood, including oak and maple
• High quality, tongue and groove, precision-milled
Our bamboo pre-finished molding not only protects the environment, but also provides beautiful products that rival the tensile strength of steel. Bamboo is attractive as a building material because it is very hard and strong. Bamboo is more dimensionally stable (less expansion and contraction) than many commonly used wood flooring options, including oak and maple.
Bamboo's long life makes it a Chinese symbol of long life, while in India it is a symbol of friendship. Its rare blossoming has led to the flowers' being regarded as a sign of impending famine. Several Asian cultures, including that of the Andaman Islands, believe that humanity emerged from a bamboo stem. Malaysian legends include the story of a man who dreams of a beautiful woman while sleeping under a bamboo plant; he wakes up and breaks the bamboo stem, discovering the woman inside. In the Philippines, bamboo crosses are used as a good luck charm by farmers. In Japan, a bamboo forest sometimes surrounds a Shinto shrine as part of a sacred barrier against evils. Also, bamboo is considered second in the rank in the order of "Matsu (pine wood), Take (bamboo), Ume (plum)" and this order is used when ordering a sushi course or getting a room in a traditional Ryokan inn. Hawaiian bamboo ('ohe) is a kinolau or body form of the Polynesian creator god Kane.
In Chinese culture, the bamboo (竹), along with plums (梅), orchids (蘭), and chrysanthemum (菊) are all held in high esteem and are collectively referred as the "the four of great nobility" (四君子). Each plant represents a particular aspect of a noble person in Confucian ideology.
|
GreenSpec Listed
JMX Bamboo molding, furniture, and other bamboo products are ecologically friendly. Many companies can claim that their products are environmentally friendly, but our bamboo is certified as such, listed with BuildingGreen's GreenSpec.
BuildingGreen, Inc. is an independent company committed to providing accurate, unbiased, and timely information designed to help building-industry professionals and policy makers improve the environmental performance, and reduce the adverse impacts, of buildings.
BuildingGreen offers both print and electronic resources to help professionals design and build construction projects from a whole-systems perspective and take an integrated design approach that minimizes ecological impact and maximizes economic performance.
They are the publishers of Environmental Building News and GreenSpec.
Our GreenSpec listing gives you the confidence that when you buy bamboo molding from JMX Bamboo, you're buying bamboo that has passed the rigorous credentialing process of a respected third party.
|
History of Bamboo
History of Bamboo
China is known as the Kingdom of Bamboo because it has the most bamboo of any country in the world. More than 400 species of bamboo--one third of all the known species in the world--grow in China. China leads the world in the amount of area planted with bamboo, the number of bamboo trees, and the amount of bamboo wood produced every year.
The oldest archaeological finds of bamboo articles in China were unearthed from the remains of a primitive society that existed some 7,000 years ago in what is now Hemudu, Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province. As early as the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century B.C.), the Chinese used bamboo for making household articles and weapons, such as bows and arrows. Before paper was invented, slips of bamboo were the most important writing medium. Bamboo has thus played an important part in the spread and development of traditional Chinese culture.
Bamboo was closely connected with the daily lives of people in ancient China. Su Dongpo (1037-1101), a literary giant of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), said that people could not live without bamboo. The people of the time used bamboo as firewood and to make tiles, paper, rafts, hats, rain capes, and shoes. At that time, as today, bamboo shoots were eaten as a popular dish because of their crispness and fresh, sweet taste. Bamboo shoots also contain vitamins, sugar, fat, and protein.
In the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.220) bamboo was used for papermaking because it produced high-quality, inexpensive paper. Bamboo is still an important raw material for papermaking today. Some 1,600 years ago, people wrote with brushes on xuan paper made from young bamboo. Xuan paper is still popular for Chinese calligraphy and paintings.
In the Jin Dynasty a special book on bamboo was written in 265-316 A.D., in which many of China's bamboo species were recorded in detail. During the last native Chinese dynasty to rule the empire, the Ming Dynasty that spanned almost three centuries between 1368 and 1644, bamboo was used as bedding and for flooring. Some historians argue that Early Ming China was the most advanced nation on Earth at the time.
Today, in addition to molding, bamboo is widely used for household articles such as mats, beds, pillows, benches, chairs, cabinets, buckets, chopsticks, spoons, baskets, handheld fans, and bamboo furniture. Bamboo's resistance to stretching and its ability to support weight make it an ideal material for houses, flooring, scaffolding, supporting pillars, and work sheds. It is also used to make traditional Chinese musical instruments such as the sheng, a reed instrument; the di, a flute; and the xiao, a flute held vertically. Bamboo is also used in Chinese medicine. The leaves eliminate heat and phlegm; the juice cures strode, insanity, and a kind of asthma caused by excessive phlegm; and the root can stimulate the vital forces, quench thirst, and promote lactation. Bamboo continues to be an ecologically sound product with a variety of ideal uses.
|