The beginner bonsai enthusiast can go a fair time using regular gardening tools. But once they become serious, these tools tend to be rather limiting or downright unsuitable for bonsai. This page goes over the most common bonsai tools so that you may purchase in confidence from Natural Bonsai.
Tool grades
Natural Bonsai is a proud authorized dealer of Joshua Roth tools, the finest provider of Japanese bonsai tools in North America. Joshua Roth tools are of the highest quality materials and workmanship, and are warranted for three years after purchase.
We offer most tools different grades, from novice to professional. All are high-quality crafted Japanese tools, but designed to suit different budgets and levels of use. Some retailers stock inexpensive Chinese tools, but these are made of low carbon steel and will not keep a sharp edge. We do not sell such tools and recommend avoiding them.
For the beginner, we suggest our novice line, which features reasonably priced tools designed for lighter use. More advanced users with a larger bonsai collection will prefer a higher grade. Our intermediate and professional grades are made with higher quality steel and will keep their sharp cutting edge longer and require less maintenance than novice grade tools under heavy use.
Also available are stainless steel tools, which will resist rust and will therefore not require occasional oiling. Whereas it used to be the case that carbon steel was considered superior to stainless steel for cutting tools, modern stainless steel will keep an edge just as well as quality high carbon steel. These stainless steel tools will, however, command top dollar since stainless steel can cost ten times as much as carbon steel, and is more difficult to forge.
If in doubt, always purchase the best tools you can afford, but recall that Natural Bonsai only sells fine Japanese tools.
Concave cutters
If you had to buy one bonsai tool, your first purchase should be a pair of concave cutters, sometimes called side-cutters. They have an angled cutting edge and are designed to make precise cuts for removing branches. They are available in various sizes, suited for removing correspondingly sized branches. An all-purpose size is 8-inches. Future acquisitions could include smaller cutters for more delicate work, and larger cutters for working with your larger bonsai.
Spherical concave cutters
Similar to the concave cutters, these have an angled blade, but with a rounded cutting edge. These are designed for more advanced branch removal, and create a hollowed wound that will appear flat when the tree calluses over.
Knob cutters
Another specialized cutting tool, the head of the knob cutter is completely spherical and designed for removing knobs or hollowing wounds left by concave cutters. Branches cannot be removed with knob cutters; this requires concave cutters.
Wire cutters
Wire cutters are used to cut and remove the wire used to shape bonsai branches. These are superior in this facility to the electrician's wire snippers, as the bonsai tool can cut at the very tip of the blades, and has a rounded nose so as not to damage the tree.
Leaf trimmers
These are simple, but precise and easy-to-use shears for removing leaves. They allow for fast defoliation and bud removal.
Shears
Shears come in various designs and under the guise of various Japanese names. Some have short blades but long handles and are meant for reaching deep into the tree for precise pruning or leaf removal. Others have longer blades and shorter handles are are designed for all-purpose pruning.
Trunk splitter
Trunk splitters, with the semi-circle shape of their head, are designed to split a trunk or large branch lengthwise with minimal residual damage.
Branch benders
When a brach is too large or too rigid to bend with wire, branch benders are often the solution. Offered in a range of sizes, they can apply enough pressure to bend the branch, while their vinyl coating minimizes damage.
Tweezers
Tweezers are excellent for removing dead leaves, insects, needles, weeds and any other fine objects from in and around your bonsai.
