MrBeto. You can't go wrong with Kaneshin. Get a price from Q-bonsai, a member on this site and former club member of the Houston Bonsai Society. He can beat pretty much any price on kaneshin or masakuni and he's been very reliable. Also, there's a bit of a preference in stainless vs. carbon steel. Stainless won't rust as fast, but carbon steel is harder, easier to sharpen and holds it's edge longer. Your choice - I have a lot of stainless tools, but I've grown to like the carbon steel variety better except for a few items.
In the near term for JBP, you can get away with the following for the July study group:
Branch cutters
Bud shears
You won't need anything else as we're going to be mostly decandling. I havent seen your trees so I can't tell you if they're at the decandling stage, but if not, we'll have some other pines you can practice on. In the fall, you'll want a good pair of
straight tweezers - we'll be pulling needles. At the winter meeting you'll want to add some repotting tools and a couple of extra things for wiring. We'll chat about it at the study group so you'll know what you'll need in advance. I suggest you build your tool set a little at a time rather than buy a pre-built set - you'll inevitably end up purchasing a bunch of stuff that you'll never use. Spend a couple of bucks more on the stuff you will.
