Moso bamboo and rice straw were used in this study. Moso bamboo aging with 4 years was taken from a bamboo plantation located in Louisiana, US. The initial moisture content of the bamboo was about 6.13% and the density was about 0.65 g/cm3. Bamboo materials were cut off to sample size 40 mm (longitudinal) by 3e8 mm (radial) by 20e30 mm (tangential). Rice straw was obtained from California, US. It was approximately 1 m tall at harvest and cut above the water line leaving the lower third as stubble in the field. This rice was also harvested with a conven- tional straw walker combine rather than a rotary, which optimizes straw quality by retaining much longer sections of stalks for bailing. The initial moisture content of the straw was about 8.1%.