Can't say a thing about how it chips but it sure makes some of the best garden stakes/poles I've ever used (bottoms rot out after a couple of years, trim and replace, doesn't add anything hurtful to the soil either), ya might consider putting some bundles together for your greenthumb friends or one of your local gardening centers, shoot, we pay like 2$ apiece for 6-8ft ones. Any flute makers around would love anything over about 3/4 in diameter too. Very utile thing bamboo is, I make kites for my kid using it (split 1" into quaters) excellent flex. Cut green its pretty darned tough stringy stuff, yes yes on sharp blades for your chipper and for real watch out handling splintered pieces as it holds a pretty good edge (edit, I see I was beat on that one lol, really can cut very well, have a local here who was building in Japan for a year, job ended for him when he drunkenly drove his Jeep into a bamboo patch, 5yrs later his arm still looks like he fought with a tiger, gak!).
My 0.02$ worth.