European wild pear_The Grandma

Sorry Breck, while I do appretiate the effort you have made to draw and share an interesting artistic intention, I will leave the Grandma as she is for two main reasons.

Proposed change will leave the trunk with many scares/ sizeable sharis/uros that could have a negative impact on the health of the tree.
I do my best to cultivate trees in a way that they tell true and believable story.   ie native trees should look the way the natives look like etc.

You are right.  Looking at this tree I can see many flaws too.   I would have a problem to leave them without any action if the tree is "young".   But this tree is quite old.   I guess it is close to our age maybe even older.   I do not expect a grandma to look like Jane Fonda.  ( with full respect to  her)  If I share my photograph here I am sure you would have a very bad dreams for few nights.    But that is age...  My wife would say that it was not much better even at my young age

no need to appologise, I thought it was too radical , probably would be for me if I was lucky enough to have such a superb tree. Enjoy it and have fun I look forward to seeing it in the biggest and best bonsai competitions and shows you have a winner

breck wrote: you have a winner

... providing that the single main criterion is the cumulative age of the tree and its owner

As I have written somewhere on my blog: this is  the most valuable tree on my benches.   But its value for me  is not in its quality in terms of bonsai. There are some quite positive features but also quite a few flaws. I guess this was a reason for you or Mike to spend some  time and to propose interesting solutions to fix it... Thank you.

Vlad wrote:... ... I do not expect a grandma to look like Jane Fonda. ( with full respect to her)

What???
But Jane Fonda IS a grandma
While I do understand MichaelS viewpoint and the rational behind it, I think that the advice of late Jim Lewis is sound and weights...

JimLewis wrote:NO tree should be above anyone's level if he or she isn't in a hellfire hurry to DO SOMETHING.   If nothing else, just work on the roots for this one for the next few years while you study and assess the top.  There are any number of competent bonsaiests in Europe, surely you can get one (or several) of them to take a look.  Visit one of the shows and bring the tree with you.  People will flock to make suggestions.  Just don't take any but the best.

Thank you again for the update!