Wire....What to buy?

What are the 3 most used size in thickness of bonsai wire. I am asking as I need to buy some for the first time?

for me...
1.5, 2.0, 2.5 alum

16, 14, 12 copper

hi,
it totally depends on how thick the branches you are trying to bend are so the wire needed depends on the trees you have.

When you are starting out there tends to be a lot of raw styling, trunk curving, main branch wiring etc so you will be using larger sizes to do the job properly with one wire so 5mm for average trunks, 4mm for thin trunks an thicker branches and some 2.5mm for most primary branches.

as your trees mature you find you are not doing their trunks and primary branches any more but now you are refining the pads and ramification so now you are using a lot more 1mm, 1.5mm etc. While you practice aluminium is much easier and copper wire tends to be something to progress onto as you get some more mature conifers that need more severe bends. (i have every size aluminium in the new shop (500gr) and do a rolling discount on 3 rolls, 6 rolls etc, just message me if you need any extra advice)

cheers Marcus

Craig, a rough guide is that you should use wire that is half the thickness of the branch you're trying to bend. That is for aluminium wire which again as a rough guide you would use on deciduous trees. Copper wire is generally a third of the size of branch to be bent and most people use it for their coniferous trees.

You can find a good article on the subject by clicking HERE. I'd recommend you bookmark that site as it has god-like status in the UK and beyond.

Hope that helped.

Thanks for the input folks.

Craig Hartley wrote:Thanks for the input folks.

what three are you getting Craig

I have ordered 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 4mm aluminium for now.

Cool,

Add as you go

before you know it you will be like most of use....with piles of wire