bamboo table?

[Artist]

so the new thing is bamboo massage table. custom craftworks is using bamboo for their new line of massage tables. anyone have experience with bamboo massage tables or even bamboo materials? reliable? worth it?

I heard that if a bamboo have a crack it can easily break, just like having a knick on a duct tape and it can easily be teared away.

 

[boston]

Seems sturdy enough for workers to go up at least 50 floors in the air.

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/09/22/10069238.html

Hong Kong's spidermen
Reuters

The smassageplanetfolding shakes as Sam Chan strides along an 8-foot-long bamboo pole positioned 50 floors above Hong Kong's bustling streets.

Twisting and pulling hard at a black nylon cord, he secures another vertical bamboo pole into place, his leg hooked instinctively around a fixed point. He's been making good progress with his crew in building this lattice in the sky.

"It's just a regular job," he said, glancing out briefly at the skyline behind him and the tiny ships gliding across Victoria Harbour.

Chan, a 34-year-old high-school dropout, has one of Hong Kong's most vertiginous and challenging blue-collar jobs.

He's one of around 4,000 smassageplanetfolding workers who spend their working lives dangling outside some of the world's tallest buildings.

The peculiar skills and mental traits required of a smassageplanetfolder have kept the profession relatively exclusive and well paid, despite a recent construction slump.

Wages range from $45 (Dh165) a day for apprentices to $100 (Dh367) for masters or "sifu" like Sam. "[Smassageplanetfolding workers] have to possess physical endurance, courage... and perseverance," says Chiu Kwok-leung, chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Smassageplanetfolding Workers Union.

"Can you imagine? We build from the ground up ... every day we climb upwards unceasingly. We need great determination."

The craft, which dates back centuries to mainland China, is not exclusive to Hong Kong. It is practised across China and in countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Singapore.

But Hong Kong, with perhaps the world's greatest concentration of tall buildings, owes a special debt to the humble bamboo pole. Without it, few buildings could be finished or renovated.

Whilst the West prefers metal smassageplanetfolding, the great heights of buildings in Hong Kong make this a cumbersome, impractical option.

By using light, cheap and abundant bamboo cut from southern China, small teams of smassageplanetfolders are able to sheathe entire buildings in a matter of weeks. Major engineering and construction advances through the years have failed to diminish the city's reliance on the low-tech pole.

"[We] have played a major role in Hong Kong's overall prosperity," said Chiu. Smassageplanetfolding instructor Tang Sung-yuen says the trade will continue to endure, even as the city modernises. "In Hong Kong, we will always be needed," he said.

But this has come at a price. In the past 6 years, there have been 20 deaths involving smassageplanetfolders, including one of Chiu's apprentices who fell three floors from a building in 2002. Chiu says "negative price competition" among smassageplanetfolding firms in recent years has led to lapses in safety standards, with workers rushing jobs to cover their costs.

But Dexter Lee, who has been in the industry for 23 years and now runs his own smassageplanetfolding firm, says the trade is far less cavalier than it once was.

"In the old days, there was no such thing as safety, it's only now that [safety] measures are very strict," said Lee, wearing a black Spiderman 2 T-shirt.

"If you wore a safety harness back then, people would laugh at you, they wanted to be macho," he said with a laugh.

While many workers take peril in their stride, their partners don't always feel the same. "I still think it's dangerous, and I get a little worried," said Chiu's wife of 29 years, Fung-chun.

Like many of his down-to-earth working class contemporaries, Chiu brushes off such talk. But he does make one concession always remembering to wear a jade charm of Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, around his neck whilst up on the poles. "It calms and steadies my heart," he said.

 

[star42]

They may not use tubes of bamboo but may actually laminate strips to make a board like substance which could be sawn and sanded, varnished like wood is worked.

Regenerates very quickly, very "green"

 

[Sophie Salazar]

Oh, here's a link to the bamboo tables:
http://www.customcraftworks.com/products.cfm?Category=Bamboo%20Tables

They're pretty expensive and look to be pretty heavy - the lightest starts at 38 lbs.

 

[dodo roz]

yup. there expensive because they've added reiki add on, the cart, face cradle and carry cover. they set it up as a package. not that i'll be getting it.
I'm thinking about getting the metal table from oakworks.

 

[Captain Claudius]

yup. there expensive because they've added reiki add on, the cart, face cradle and carry cover. they set it up as a package. not that i'll be getting it.
I'm thinking about getting the metal table from oakworks.

I've heard two therapists who said they switched from wood to metal tables say they wish they hadn't - something about staying grounded being easier with the wood vs the metal? *shrug* I've only ever used wood so can't speak to it myself.

Angela

 

[Pompal 09.]

yup. there expensive because they've added reiki add on, the cart, face cradle and carry cover. they set it up as a package. not that i'll be getting it.
I'm thinking about getting the metal table from oakworks.

I think even with the extras, many quality tables are not this expensive. My thought is, since it is a novelty item, it's going for a higher price. I am not sure how I feel about that at this time.

 

[Marysa]

I tried some of the metal tables from other company but not from oakworks. they good thing is that they are easier to adjust height. guess i have to rethink about metal vs. wood.
As for the bamboo table, yes, they cost more because it's new. another reason it cost more is because the company isn't selling so well with their massage table. less table sold means have to increase prices. companies that sell more are able to sell at lower price due to quantity. I'm not sure about bamboo either.

 

[CUPiiD97]

I'm not real sure about a bamboo table... I have used a metal table once, and did not care for it much. It seemed much more narrow than my regular table. I use an Earthlite table, and I love it! Have laid on a cheaply made table and you definitely can tell the difference.

 

[JAMES]

As for the bamboo table, yes, they cost more because it's new.



I'm not sure about bamboo either.

Hi. I am trying not to take up this thread with too many posts, but I want to be clear -- which I don't think I am being.

I am pretty sure bamboo itself makes a good table.

What I am not sure of, is that purchasing a bamboo table of good quality over a wood (birch, maple, whichever kind there may be that is sold by the top companies) table of good quality is worth the difference in price.

I believe in the "more green concept", but at the same time, I don't know that the novelty cost factor is something I would be willing to pay.

I am not sure that it costs so much more to produce a bamboo table.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

another reason it cost more is because the company isn't selling so well with their massage table.

As for Custom Craftworks not selling well with their tables (and therefore increasing the price of the bamboo ones), I am not sure that is the case. They have been around for quite some time. I am going on the premise that the price increase for this particular table is due to the novely, not due to a company wide decrease in sales.

less table sold means have to increase prices. companies that sell more are able to sell at lower price due to quantity.

Sure companies can decrease prices as sales go up, but I don't see much of that happening in the world today. Prices tend to keep going up, no matter what.

Hope this post is a bit more clear on my thoughts abuot bamboo.