Originally Posted by Canaboo

There is no bamboo quite like Tonkin. When the material is actually tested as slats Tonkin comes out far ahead of pretty much everything out there.
If Dendro is "Iron", Tonkin is tempered steel.
Having said that Bamboo is in tube form quickly gains an advantage from larger diameter tubes being similar to oversized Aluminum where the diameter increase makes up for a relative weakness of material.
If you don't mind larger sized tubing then any of the Phylo types will work fine.
You can make a Tonkin bike with steel dimensions. In fact I'm working on an old style pursuit frame (just because they look cool) in Tonkin which I will post pics of soon.
Remember a lot of dealers will throw the Tonkin name around pretty freely and many pics listed as Tonkin are almost certainly not that type.