I planned for the ceiling to be carbonised bamboo. This requires 3 sheets of bamboo, with some sort of join between each sheet. After a rethink I’ve decided to split the ceiling and add a central section of Lawson Cypress. The plan is for it to provide some contrast (it is light whereas the bamboo is darker) and tie in nicely with the kitchenette. This way I only need two sheets of the bamboo – one either side of the Lawson – and no panel joiners.

The section of Lawson will be around 700mm x 2000mm. To ensure that it doesn’t end up weighing too much, I am using very thin timber – the finished thickness will be around 8 or 9mm.

I started by selecting a few nice straight 2m lengths of Lawson ex. 100×50, finished. I cut 12mm slices on the table saw off the thinner edge for a size of 44mm x 12mm. I then ran these through my new (second-hand) thicknesser to get them down to 10mm. I was not impressed by the tearout – almost every piece has some tearout damage. I presume its due to the soft wood, but I haven’t checked the blades yet. They may require some honing.

I then glued the finished pieces side by side in three sections around 240mm wide each.

The next step will be to glue the three sections together and finally sand the entire surface to get a nice, smooth finish (hopefully getting rid of all that tearout) and bringing out the grain. I fear there will be a lot of sanding ahead…