Ralph & Pootsie, sorry for slipping into the vernacular

Gubbins = "assorted stuff"

Too cold out to be sorting through gubbins so I'll trust to memory:

1 twig shears
1 root shears
1 concave cutter
2 leaf scissors
1 pucka root rake
1 homemade rake
2 electrician's pliers
plastic tube
bare steel bell wire
insulation tape
1 secateurs
1 junior hacksaw
1 sheath knife
1 mini spade 2" wide
1 mini rake 2" wide
2 small brushes
mesh
dremel & tooling
1 bending jack
1 tub cut paste
1 tub rooting hormone
1 pot lime sulphur
1 pot sewing machine oil
1 water mister
1 houseplant watering can
1 bag organic fertiliser
1 bag clay
1 bag raffia
2 teethbrush
1 replaceable-blade craft knife
1 stanley knife

Some explanations:

sewing machine oil is excellent for cleaning up pots and discouraging and disguising limescale deposits.

Bell wire is very thin but very strong, excellent for unubtrusive guy wires.

Homemade rake is a kitchen fork with bent tines.

Regards,

Chris.

Even a bottle of asprin!

I have two special tools that I find extremely usefull for checking the pH and the salinity of my soil mixtures.

The salinity tells you how much fertiliser is present in your soil and makes it possible for you to add fertiliser when needed or remove excess when it's too high.

The pH can tell you the exact amount of acidity or alkalinity of your mixture.

Here is the information on one that can do both :
http://www.process-controls.com/Vis...L/agrimeter.htm

Probably a pound and a half of bonsai soil, loose and unbagged, the same amount of nursery potting soil, enough old needles from victim Mugos to make an entire tree, bits of useless wire, portions of broken chop sticks, useless pieces of screen, more dirt, more bits of wire, a dead bug or two, an unidentified smell, an identified smell, some bits of gravel and assorted tools.

I have a bunch of different tools...but nothing like some of you have.

- 15-16 tools (concave cutters through to chopsticks...Root rakes to leaf cutters)
- Six or seven pots
- About 25#'s of soil my instructor made
- Seven different guages of wire
- Four or five 5x8 sheets of soft ply screen

What is interesting is I don't get to use a new tool, unless I am working specifically on that with my instructor. For example, I will get to purchase and use a splitter here this spring as I will be doing that with him.

I could buy it on my own and use it, but I would just end up destroying something because I don't know how to use it! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Good post!

Jeffrey

I have a hard sided Samsonite rolling valise. It contains:
1.Homelite chainsaw.
2.Spare chain
3.Sawsall
4.Spare blades
5. 1/2" drill motor w/ 1/2" drill (For thread grafts)
6. Large first aid kit w/ tourniquet
7. Spray bottle Bactine for bee/wasp stings
8. 57 Chevy tire iron
9. spare roll toilet paper
10. snake bite kit w/ dried out and cracked suction device
11. Change of underware ( self explanatory see #9)
12. Fiskers scissors (only the best)
13. Ronco scissor sharpener (as seen on TV)
14. three partial rolls duct tape
15. One can Rustoleum Forest green spray paint. (for touch up)
16. Beer opener (again self explanatory)

Al

This made me think of something-do any of you use old needles in the soil mix to improve drainage/increse proportion of organic matter?

Never enough. Great post Candice......
Well...if you've ever looked at a Masakuni Catalog I have nearly every single tool they make....ok...I'm not bragging.
Why? well, 23 yrs ago I was offered a wholsale distributorship. So I bought every one they made as a gift to myself.


In addtion to that, at one time 2 decades ago, Masakuni used to make custom tools or 'presentation quality tools' for sale. They discontinued this a long time ago. I decided to by a few of them at the current prices (upward of $100each WHOLESALE) and did so.

Well, I've got them put away for very special gifts to folks...such as Consulate and others that would require an impressive very limited gift.

The tools are very beautiful with damacene gold wire hammered into the logo of Masakuni.

Heck if I die with them, maybe my kids will off 'em at a garage sale not knowing what the dickens they are!

In the meantime I've let go of the Masakuni distributorship as my wholesale connection converted their business to Futaba. Futaba (I think, but not for sure) is actually made by Masakuni. In the tool world this is not uncommon. I was at one time a dealer for Union Butterfield HS and Carbide cutting tools and this was done through them and all the industry: re-lable another line with the same tools, but half the price. Result: volume and profit.

The Futaba tools actually look the same and are extremely well made along with durability.

best to all!
vance hanna
(PS keep your tools sharp and well oiled!)

PPS along with the Masakunis i've got a dremel and a full .25" dia die grinder, hand saws, drain spade, syringes, et al....

Now I hope I don't get offed by my brother's Bimmer....

[QUOTE=vance hanna]Why? well, 23 yrs ago I was offered a wholsale distributorship. So I bought every one they made as a gift to myself.

Vance,
I must admit, I don't think I ever paid retail for any of my Masakini tools either. In '95 , when I had a storefront, I was getting them from their Masakuni office in California, which has been closed since about then I think. I kinda missed them for a while!
There seems to be a renewed supply of importers now carrying them if anyone cares to venture into their retail pricing!!!
Several years ago, during the ABS Denver symposium ( 97 I think) , there was a lady there selling her late husbands business stock with masakuni tools, old old pots, out of print books , etc. at the prices he had on them from MANY years before. Wow! It was a non-profit show!
Although most of my masakuni's from that show are the huge cutters which were less than wholesale costs when I had a store ( I don't have them all BTW ) there are still the odd smaller tools from my store. My favorite cutter ever and used for 95% of everything I do is the #2020 ( and 8220). What a tool. They are the only Masakuni tool I still sell. I own three of them and several sets of extra blades. My teacher, Keith scott, gave me an older one back in 85, I got a newer one with the softer red handles and, while at BSF show a couple years ago I bought one off another vendors table for $10!!!! There was this "WHOOSH" sound as my wallet jumped out of my pants. He was selling it for an old guy who was getting out of bonsai and had cut wire with it and he had dropped and broke one blade. It so happens that at that show they had a guy with a van outside repairing/sharpening tools ( A GREAT idea BTW) . I decided to ask about fixing them instead of using another set of blades. He said he could shorten both blades equal ( taking off about 1/2") , reshape and remove nicks from wire, then resharpen. iIasked how much....he said $2 and I heard that "whoosh" sound again!
Man, I could cut off an arm with those cutters!
The other thing I walked away from that show with was a hand made Kawamoto land and water pot...for a price I'm embarrassed to say!
Regards,
Dale

I love the 2020's and also have had the time finding replacement blades. My blades are shorter as well...ie sharpening down.

I also use that darn 2001 an awful lot. Esp when collecting or in the garden.

There a time when Maskuni's were reasonable in cost, both to the whoelsaler and the end user but honestly that was 18 or so years ago.

The first big order I got for them was over 4000$ at wholesale/ to a big nurery here in MI. Later I wondered what ever happened to that stock....

At any rate I'm glad I got them then, as today I would not be in that postion to buy them.

Again though, the other tools from JR (japanese private label) and Futaba are excellent and IMHO are just as good.