Your Favorite tool brands and types?

Bonsainut

Hey Guys,
I think it would be interesting to compare notes on bonsai tools.
Here is what I would like to discuss-

1. Do you have a favorite tool brand. Compare costs to quality, stuff like that.
2. What tool do you most depend on---or could be without, wish you hadn't bought?

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Keep growing,---'Nut



Lethal Use of Farce

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bonsaial1

I hate to have to spend money on tools, wire, screen, soil, fertilizer,etc. Tools is a big chunk of money to spend on the wrong tool. I have five tools in my bonsai bag, spring loaded shear, wire cutter, root shears, concave branch cutter, and sharp pointed branch/leaf cutter. All the tools except the spring loaded shears are "futaba". The shears are just cheap corona, filed to a pointed tip, polished and blued with a cold gun bluing kit. When they wear out I just buy a new pair , sit and watch TV and polish the new pair. I have a jin plier, and jin graver too. They are cool looking but I seldom use them. I do use the pliers for tyeing my trees into the pot. I know that there are some very sharp tools and some that work with the precision of surgical instruments. I think tha black futaba is very good for the money. All my tools seem to be attracted to dirt, and will end up getting nicked anyway. I sure would hate to see a 350.00 pair of masakuni's be turned into a wire stripper. Happy prun'in Bonsaial

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I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

TreeBay

Our good friend Ed tried cutting tomato cages with a jumbo pair of very expensive wire cutters. The legendary shears of the samurai.... uh, broke.

I sell the another brand on the TreeBay.com site. They are warranted for three years, but I doubt they would make very good tomato cage cutters, either!

I've heard another vendor's customer had a pair of concave branch cutters break on their first cut. Happened to be a branch on a mature boxwood. That's extremely hard wood. I don't know if persimmon is harder, but it's a challenge for any tool.

There is a general rool of thumb for branch cutters that you want the jaw width to be twice as wide as the branch being cut.

You can go a long way with just a pair of branch cutters and a shear. But buy a nice, solid turntable with a brake on it. That's an indispensible tool that will keep you from going batty.

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Bonsainut

Mc and Al,
Theres alot of bonsai experience behind your comments. I
think there is a natural tendency to buy lots of tools. When you can do real fine work with a just a few good tools.
I depend on a felco#2 shear for creating and big cuts. One 8 inch concave cutter, a heavy bonsai shear, and a large 12inch knob cutter. I have other tools but never reach for them, ya know?

__________________
Keep growing,---'Nut



Lethal Use of Farce

bonsaial1

Where's the guy at the fair and the home shows that sell the legendary ginsu knives. Why can't these people make some bonsai shears that won't nick. First he cuts the shoe sole, then cuts the head of a hammer, and shows the metal filings, then cuts a tomato so thin you can read a newspaper through it. Now thats performance. Wait a minute,, I could call my new product "shinsu" the high performance bonsai shears... nah... just a dream.....

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

Bonsainut

We had a machinist in our local club. He really was serious about a line of American made bonsai tools. But abandoned the idea after costing it out and finding he would have to sell a concave cutter at about 100 bucks. You can't beat Japanese quality and price !

__________________
Keep growing,---'Nut



Lethal Use of Farce

bonsaial1

When you factor in time and money for raw material, you just may as well buy it. I started a company in 1994 called California Bonsai Supply. I was stripping copper wire , rolling it around a peice of 6" PVC pipe, packaging it, and trying to sell it for 10.00 a 500 gram spool. I found that on the big wire I could not even buy it for that price. If I did find a good supplier, I didn't make that much money on it. I had my own kiln and tried making my own pots. As soon as you try to make a buisness out of it, the glamour goes away. I found that my hobby was fast becoming work. I do still make stands and carve dai's for suiseki. I really love woodworking and would probably do this work even if I wasn't into bonsai. I have made some unusual dai's for people. I had a request to carve a dai for some bricks. They had been removed from a building that was torn down. The client had a buisiness there for 25 years. The bricks sit on their mantle, and remind them of happier times, I guess... I also received a request for a dai for a stone that a soldier brought back from Viet Nam. He said that he and his buddy were caught in a fire fight. His buddy was killed and that his head was inches from this stone. He brought it back as a souveneir, to remember his buddy by. My latest endeavor was to make some custom planting sticks. They are made of exotic hardwoods like my stands and about 13" long. Two of them have inlay and ebony dowls at the ends of the inlay. I am trying to sell them at 12.00$ each at a local bonsai nursery, but I guess the world is just not ready for these, as he has not sold a single one. I guess I will have to donate them as raffle prizes at the club meeting or use them as awards throughout the year. Hey.. the custom chopstick award... I will go down in history Any way here is a pic on the infamous sticks. Regards Bonsaial

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

Wow, the wood looks great. Wish you made pellet gun stocks I would surely be interested in you making me one

It looks like quality work, Al, but I don't find a big need for chop sticks. Now if you were to take the top part and make a handle out of it for a thin blade pruning saw you could probably sell a ton of them for $25. I'll be first where do I order?

Tony