So today I finally found bamboo of a suitable thickness to create chopsticks at my local dollar store. The thickness is perfect, the hight is at the limit. I created some and used today in a repot. I can attest that they work infinitely better than oriental food chopsticks. In the picture the thickest one I made.
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Great score! Wish that store had locations near me
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sometimes you may find stuff in places you wouldnāt normally expect, just need to keep an eye open for the opportunitiesā¦
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Continuing the discussion from Bamboo chopsticks:
I found a great source for for large diameter bamboo. On master gardenproducts.com I was able to order a 7 foot long large diameter piece of boo, split it up like Ryan showed us, I have enough chopsticks to last me a lifetime.
it was only $25 plus shipping.
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@Garrett240 gardenproducts.com just takes you to a generic site. Do you or the company that you got the boo from have a web site address?
Thanks
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Typo on my end sorryā¦ http://www.mastergardenproducts.com/bamboopole.htm
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What was the shipping cost for an unusual sized parcel like that?
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$20, I live in the Bay Area CA, took about 10 days to arrive
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So for all you rural typesā¦ went to Mills Fleet Farm today, they have 8 foot large diameter bamboo in the building supply area, less than $18 ā¦ buy em and use em and sell em to your friends!!!
SCORE!!!
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Ha, it is raining bamboo at my house. 
We invited family over and as I set up the bamboo laminated folding chairs, one was damaged and not safe to sit on. SOā¦ I stripped off all the bamboo veneer and cut several to use as guides for wire placement, supports for fasten down wire, props to prop tree or tie down root masses. I did spend time with the family, but also afterwards quality time making and storing bamboo tools to make my work easier and efficient.
All a good day. Recycle and reuse. 
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Since the range of bamboo products is really poor here in Sweden, I simply went with untreated strips pine wood. Someone did ask on Q&A if Ryan thought it would be a good idea to replace the bamboo with more readily available types of wood and he said that nothing compares to toughness of the bamboo. Iāve used my pine chopsticks for the spring repotting and Iām actually pleased. Just as Ryan said the pine sticks do get worn pretty fast, but I keep a bit of sandpaper in my repotting toolbox and simply sharpen the chopsticks after a repotting session. The best part is that it is easy to get long strips of pine wood in a suitable range of dimensions, I just cut them and sharpen. Iām not saying that pine is more suitable than bamboo, but for people that have trouble getting their hands on good bamboo, pine strips is a reasonable substitute.
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before finding bamboo, I had thought of using any wood and simply glueing laminate self-adhesive stripes that are easily available at home improvement stores the sort used to finish some corners in kitchen cabinets. That would allow you to have one side smooth whereas the other rough to dislodge/move soil only on one side.
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Hah, awesome thought. Thatās exactly how I think when I need things I canāt buy. I suggest a similar āout of the boxā approach on a chopstick thread earlier today. I like it!
Was that Dollar Tree? I think they have the green and yellow price. Let me know! Iām curious to know if they might have that product here as well.
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What is the smallest dia bamboo you could work with? I have a local source that says what they clearing is 2" diam. Any thoughts on trying to use that?
2" is a little small, but you might be able to work something with that.
If they are just cutting it down now, though, itāll probably be too green to make into chopsticks immediately. I donāt know how long it takes to dry the bamboo.
search ātimber bambooā that is where you will find large diameter bamboo more suitable for making the chopsticks we use.
I ended up ordering some 3" from amazon. Which worked pretty good. The 2" is being cut locally. I may still grab a bunch and give it a try. Worst case I can use it to shield watering tube from the sun