M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
Anything is possible I guess.
They've made great strides in their fight for equality with right handers.
My Kaneshin b-day tools :)
- Thread starter Alain
- Start date
They've made great strides in their fight for equality with right handers.
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
I had an idea you were left handed. You're too much like my stepson to not be.
Like I told him. Learn to do a few things with your right hand so people think you are.
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
Lol!
I flick off everyone with my right hand.
I can actually do everything with both!
Except the "stranger".
And throwing.
But playing the Guitar will always elude me.
Sorce
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
The stepsons name is Michael too!
He flicks boogers with his right hand!
He flicks boogers with his right hand!
Stick root: that's a beautiful tool.
May I suggest a couple things about the rake part? Would it be possible for it to be a three tined rake rather than just two? And second, the tines shouldn't be so sharp.
The purpose of the tool is to drag across the bottom of the rootball to lift the matted roots off the bottom. We want the bottom of the root ball to remain flat. So, this tool should have the ends of the tines be straight across so that it drags across evenly. It's not used for digging into to the root ball. That's what the other end is for, and your root hook end looks perfect. So make the tines of the rake portion dull so that it will drag across the bottom easier.
Your workmanship looks excellent!
I'll surely go back to them if one day I'm looking for more tools.
I though for a long time that the wire cutter was use to cut a length of wire from the roll when wiring. So my thinking was: 'Eh, what the hell! My electrical pliers do the job quite fine!'
Now that I know that it's in fact to cut and remove the wires from the tree 1) I'll die smarter, 2) I see why the electrical pliers aren't the same deal at all!
Alain, bonsai wire cutters are used to cut the heavy wire off. Gauge 10 and larger. Anything smaller can be unwound. The best tool for unwinding are Jin pliers. Kaneshin makes those, too! In fact, I bought a pair of their stainless steel ones.
The only other tools you are missing are heavy duty serrated tweezers (straight), and bent tip tweezers for scraping the tops of rootballs.
First of all: thanks everyone for your B-day wishes! (my birthday is the 9th actually but the tools arrived Friday evening and there was no way I could wait to open the box).
Screw you all, I'm ambidextrous
In fact I suck badly at wiring. I even think I killed my azalea from the box-store challenge last season because I tried to follow the recommendation of wiring my tree instead of bending the branches with guy wires.
So first I have to learn how to wire and then may be I'll need the wire cutters
But anyway for the moment (and for the foreseeing future) I will calm down with the tools (I have tons of tools and even if they aren't real bonsai tools they do the job for the moment).
The next money I'll spend for my trees (not counting the money for the soil, fertilizer, new trees and so on) will be a nice pot actually.
That will be the 1st time I buy a bonsai pot but next year or so I think that my trumpet vine will be ready for its real pot filled with real bonsai soil.
That won't be cheap as the pot will be round or oval with a diameter (or long axis) of at least 1 to 1 1/2 foot and I am actually thinking to order it directly from Tokoname as it seems in fact much cheaper than trying to find a nice pot this size in the Sates.
Will see...
Screw you all, I'm ambidextrous
In fact I suck badly at wiring. I even think I killed my azalea from the box-store challenge last season because I tried to follow the recommendation of wiring my tree instead of bending the branches with guy wires.
So first I have to learn how to wire and then may be I'll need the wire cutters
But anyway for the moment (and for the foreseeing future) I will calm down with the tools (I have tons of tools and even if they aren't real bonsai tools they do the job for the moment).
The next money I'll spend for my trees (not counting the money for the soil, fertilizer, new trees and so on) will be a nice pot actually.
That will be the 1st time I buy a bonsai pot but next year or so I think that my trumpet vine will be ready for its real pot filled with real bonsai soil.
That won't be cheap as the pot will be round or oval with a diameter (or long axis) of at least 1 to 1 1/2 foot and I am actually thinking to order it directly from Tokoname as it seems in fact much cheaper than trying to find a nice pot this size in the Sates.
Will see...
Don't want to stray too far off the topic of tools, but wiring an azalea can be tricky...
First off, azaleas are very brittle once the new growth has lignified. You can wire green stems just fine, but once they turn grey, it's really too late. So, wiring lignified branches is not really a good idea. And, it's not the wire, per se, it's the bending. Of course the whole point of wiring is to bend! But it's the bending that breaks the branches, not the wire.
I always use aluminum when wiring azalea. I've heard that azalea are allergic (0r something) to copper. Some say it doesn't matter. I also remove the wire for the winter. Azalea bark is thin, and wire can concentrate the cold on contact points. So, I remove it. Some say it doesn't matter.
So, I try to wire only the young green stems. And remove the wire as soon as it has lignified.
As for technique, go to www.craftsy.com and search for bonsai. Colin Lewis has an excellent tutorial that's free. You do have to register. But it's free.
First off, azaleas are very brittle once the new growth has lignified. You can wire green stems just fine, but once they turn grey, it's really too late. So, wiring lignified branches is not really a good idea. And, it's not the wire, per se, it's the bending. Of course the whole point of wiring is to bend! But it's the bending that breaks the branches, not the wire.
I always use aluminum when wiring azalea. I've heard that azalea are allergic (0r something) to copper. Some say it doesn't matter. I also remove the wire for the winter. Azalea bark is thin, and wire can concentrate the cold on contact points. So, I remove it. Some say it doesn't matter.
So, I try to wire only the young green stems. And remove the wire as soon as it has lignified.
As for technique, go to www.craftsy.com and search for bonsai. Colin Lewis has an excellent tutorial that's free. You do have to register. But it's free.
In fact the wiring per se wasn't that bad and I didn't break any branches.
It's more the wiring aftercare that was a catastrophe...
I wait too long or something before removing the wires so there were some wiring scares which I tried to fix and...let's say snowball effect when you try to fix a mistake with a bigger one, the net result is that my azalea died.
I had the same problem with an elm but there the good thing is that I just chopped it and it didn't care.
But really the main conclusion I reached was that wiring is really not my thing and if I can bend the branch as I want with guy wires I'll go for it. If Walter Pall (that was him who reviewed the challenge and recommend a wiring) doesn't like it and gives me a bad review, well, so be it! Won't be my first bad review anyway
Also I think that some of my wires (which I bought last year at Hidden garden nursery) actually suck. They don't bend anything. I have other wires (smaller) that are much more efficient. so may be there is that too: I had to put 2 or 3 wires to barely succeed in bending the branches a little.
For the debate Al vs Cu for azalea I saw that too but as nobody seem to agree, well, I din't have azalea for the moment anyway so...
Thanks Adair
I actually made it first in a three tine, but I was asked to make a two tine and after using the two tine, I like it better.
So now I am making both. The tines are less sharp than other tools out there and polished very smooth.
Wiring scares you tried to fix? Or scars?In fact the wiring per se wasn't that bad and I didn't break any branches.
It's more the wiring aftercare that was a catastrophe...
I wait too long or something before removing the wires so there were some wiring scares which I tried to fix and...let's say snowball effect when you try to fix a mistake with a bigger one, the net result is that my azalea died.
I had the same problem with an elm but there the good thing is that I just chopped it and it didn't care.
But really the main conclusion I reached was that wiring is really not my thing and if I can bend the branch as I want with guy wires I'll go for it. If Walter Pall (that was him who reviewed the challenge and recommend a wiring) doesn't like it and gives me a bad review, well, so be it! Won't be my first bad review anyway
Also I think that some of my wires (which I bought last year at Hidden garden nursery) actually suck. They don't bend anything. I have other wires (smaller) that are much more efficient. so may be there is that too: I had to put 2 or 3 wires to barely succeed in bending the branches a little.
For the debate Al vs Cu for azalea I saw that too but as nobody seem to agree, well, I din't have azalea for the moment anyway so...
Uh, wiring is a skill you really need to master to progress very far with bonsai. Guy wiring has its place, but regular wiring is the best. Gives the most control. There is a learning curve. Which wire to use, what thickness, how to anchor properly, how long to leave on, etc.
But learning to wire is like learning how to use a paintbrush when learning to paint portraits. Can you "paint" just using a pallet knife? Sure! Can you impart as much detail? I don't think so.
Oops, I think it was scars...
The wires scare me though
I'll learn for sure, well at least I'll try.
In fact I just watched the course by Colin Lewis you mentioned above, thanks a lot for that it helped me understand my main mistake I think: I didn't know the 'slingshot theory' so my wires weren't crossed but they weren't efficient neither because the anchorage was wrong.
I learned much more with this course and I think I'll have to watch it again but just that really explain a lot, thanks again!
Otherwise regarding the brushes vs knives vs my fingers when I paint it doesn't really matter but my painting is a whole other story compare to bonsai.
If I was trying to do bonsai the way I paint all my trees will be dead and exploded
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