Tools ....

As a newbie I am resisting the urge to go out and buy every tool in the book. In fact I don't think I'm going to bother at all.

As it happens my other hobby is modelling and model engineering and I have a whole raft of things that will cut and snip and nip so is there any practical reason why I can't use one of those instead?

Traditional reasons will be ignored

My thought, not necesary in the starting period.
Afterwards you might buy them any way, some of the tools are great to work with and make clean and nice cuts.

Just bought me a new stainless steel jin plier

Peter

I quite often borrow Himindoors' model aircraft tools so I'm assuming there'll be similarlities. I do stop short of using his lathe though.

I would recommend you get yourself a decent pair of bonsai scissors though. You might also want to consider a decent set of branch cutters too. Remember that when you're cutting a branch a good clean cut is needed. It's a bit of a simplification but as a general rule anything ragged and you run the risk of diseases getting in. That should do you while you master the basics, then you can see if there's anything else you need.

I wouldn't want to do without my knobcutter.

Cheers,

Steve

A decent concave cutter, a good pair of scissors, and eventually a wire cutter will be necessary.

As a fellow newbie, I was anxious to get some tools pronto. I bought a cheap set off of ebay... big mistake. Out of the whole set, I only use 3 or 4 tools regularly: leaf cutters, knob cutters, concave cutters, and wire cutters. I use the root rake and hook during re-potting season, but that's about it. The worst part is that due to the humid, salty area I live in my cheap tools are already all but ruined despite my best efforts to keep them clean and rust free Lesson learned. I'd recommend starting with what you've got, new tools aren't absolutely necessary as Landerloos said. Just keep your eyes peeled for sales on good quality tools and get what you can afford as far as the other tools we've mentioned. I'm saving up and shopping around so I can replace my crappy tools, probably just get knob cutters and some concaves for now...

Chris
Regarding tools, there is a local supplier to you ,who also sells a few trees.
PM me for details

Graham

Hi

You will get very far with normal tools (for wire etc) and gardening cutters for branches etc.

The one bonsai tool I cannot do without is a concave cutter.

And just in case you're already bogged down with terminology, concave cutters = the branch cutters I mentioned, and you may find some suppliers referring to scissors as shears. The type you might want to get are ones for general branches as opposed to root shears.

Here's a ready reference guide. TOOL CHART The root shears are the big clunky ones so avoid those.

Gentleman G. wrote: (...) The worst part is that due to the humid, salty area I live in my cheap tools are already all but ruined despite my best efforts to keep them clean and rust free (...)

Keep an oily rag in your tool box, and wipe them after each use, it will help.

The 3 basic tools for me (and most of my club members) :
- straight branch cutter
- long-handled scissors
- wire cutter (actually, a pair of cheap electrician side-cutters the tip of which I filed so as to have a straight ending. I don't know if I'm very clear )

A knob cutter is the extra item.

It's better to invest in stainless tools: they are of course more expensive, but they will last a lot longer.