So here goes:
First off I had to get all the stuff together since I hadn't heat treated anything this way in quite some time, the upside is I can tell you where I got the stuff. Which isn't a whole lot when you think about it.
I bought some chain, a couple of hooks that I could screw into the rafters in my garage and a couple of 1/4" x 2" metal rings. I went to the trouble of brazing the chain to the rings but you can secure them with mechanics wire as long as you have room for the pipe to turn freely on the rings. And I bought a 4 1/2 ft. length of black pipe which is 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I got all this stuff at ACE hardware. They will cut those 10 ft. lengths of pipe you see standing back there for you and sell you just what you want. I didn't keep the receipts so I don't know exactly what I spent but I think it was around 20 bucks. The torch I use is a propane hose torch. One thing that I have done to this torch is flatten the end down some so that the flame is wide rather than a pointed one, I also use this torch to flame my cane and this helps with that also.
So here's the pipe suspended and with the cane loaded:
Here's the caps, on one end I put 2 holes in it so I could put a thermometer in one and still have a vent:
And here it is with a thermometer installed:
Here is the other end:
At this point the cane is loaded and I have started to heat the pipe. What works best for me is to start on my right and simply walk the flame to the left of the pipe slowly, it should take you about 30 seconds to get from one end to the other. When you get to the end, reach up with your gloved left hand and give the pipe a quick turn maybe 1/3 turn. Now go back to the beginning and start heating the pipe again. Go in one direction only.
After about 15 minutes or so I started to see steam coming out of the vent holes, I looked at the thermometer and found that it read about 220 degrees F.
Now you need to continue to heat the pipe in the same way for another 15 minutes or so, I really don't think it is real criticle, what I found interesting is that droplets of water formed on the back of the thermometer, it acted just like a mirror. You can see that the heat was rising but I didn't ever get over 300 degrees F.
In this last picture if you look real closely in the red box you can see a faint trail of steam, It will be much more apparent in real life when you do this. And after about 30 minutes total you will start to smell that sweet smell of cooked cane.
So to sum this up you can do this very easily and with a great deal of success. It doesn't cost much and if you time yourself you can simply start heating until you see steam and them go for another 15 minutes. Total time about 30 minutes. This will give you consistent results and works very well. Last thing is that you really don't have to worry about the cane just sitting on the pipe, you will not scorch it!
Hope this helps, this is meant to help anyone who doesn't want to build an oven just yet or you can do this as long as you want.
Another thing is that you can put ammonium carbonate crystals in with the cane to help color it to a nice wheat color, when I have done this I use a free standing fan to suck the fumes away from the area, just don't blow over the pipe but put it so it is pulling the air away form the pipe and you. Be careful with this.
Original idea found in: The Bamboo Rod and How to Build It by Claude M. Kreider
Your personal tutor and friend,
Joe E. Arguello
