Common Mistakes Beginners Make With Bonsai Tools (and How To Avoid Them)

You are going to need to work on your trees at some point when you are doing bonsai, which means that you need some bonsai tools.

However, beginners often make a lot of simple mistakes around this, which I want you to avoid, so I am going to go through some of the most common beginner mistakes I see with bonsai tools.

Buying Very Low Quality Bonsai Tools Is A Mistake

When you first get into the hobby of bonsai it is common for people to want to just have as many tools as they possibly can, which means they will buy cheap, low quality tools.

I understand it …a full set of low quality tools is about the same price as one single half decent quality tool, so why would you pay for one, when you can get a full set.

However, this is not the way to do things. The tools sets look cool, but they are functionally terrible, trust me …I have one.

They are poorly made and even some of the cutting blades are misaligned and not even sharp …so they are just not worth it.

You are much better off using tools you may already have around the house and then investing in one or two decent quality tools, as this is really all you need.

(You can read more about – What Are The Main Differences Between Beginner and Professional Bonsai Tools?)

Not Realising You Can Use Other Tools For Bonsai

A lot of beginners make the mistake of thinking that you need bonsai tools to do bonsai.

It makes sense why people would think like this, so it’s an easy mistake to make, but the reality is that you probably have a lot of tools lying around your house right now that can be perfect for bonsai.

Of course there is a place for bonsai tools, but when you are just starting out you can do a lot with some very basic things, such as scissors.

So long as they are sharp, they are going to be perfectly fine for bonsai.

(You can read more about – A Guide To Beginner Bonsai Tools )

Not Keeping Bonsai Tools Sharp Is Big Mistake

You need your tools to be sharp so that you can cut cleanly. This is going to make sure that you are causing as little damage as possible and also any wounds you make are going to heal over a lot nicer when you use sharp tools.

It is easy to let your tools go blunt and this is a mistake. I am very guilty of this and it always comes back to haunt me. When you go to cut something and the tool is blunt, it will not cut all the way through and you will end up basically ripping the last little bit of bark to complete the cut.

This may sound find, but it usually means that you create a bigger wound than you wanted and it looks bad, or parts may die that you where not wanting and as bonsai is an art and the aesthetics matter, making wounds like this is not ideal and should be avoided.

(You can read more about – Bonsai Tool Maintenance and Care)

Not Keeping Bonsai Tools Clean Is A Mistake  

Bonsai tools can get very dirty, very quickly and this is not ideal. A dirty tool is much more likely to become blunt or get damaged, and then it will not function correctly.

Sometimes the dirt can be actual dirt …from the soil, which is just going to act like sandpaper in between any cutting edges and will quickly dull your tools. However, you are more likely to get sap on your tools from pruning. 

Sap is extremely sticky and it will quickly gum up your tools and make them hard to use. You really need to be cleaning your tools after every use. Just a quick wipe should be more than enough to remove any dirt and sap and help keep your tools in better working condition for longer.

Letting Bonsai Tools Get Rusty Is A Mistake

Letting your tools become rusty is another way for them to become dull and not function correctly and it is an easy mistake to avoid.

Sometimes a little rust is unavoidable, but so long as you are generally keeping your tools dry enough, they should not rust. You can help this by giving them a quick dry with a cloth before you put them away. You are probably going to have them give them a quick wipe with a wet cloth to get the dirt off, so just give them a quick dry after doing this.

You should also be oiling your tools when you are doing your maintenance and a well oiled tool is less likely to rust.

Using The Wrong Size Bonsai Tool For The Job Is A Mistake

Ideally you want to use a tool that is going to get the job done as smoothly and quickly as possible and it can be very easy to use the wrong size tool.

The more you prune, the more you will understand the thickness of your trees and just generally how hard the wood will be.

Most of this is common sense, you wouldn’t use a tiny pair of nail scissors to cut through a trunk that is the same thickness as your wrist …but you may use nail scissors to cut a tiny twig.

There are going to be some branches where you might think one tool is going to do the job and you will quickly find that it isn’t and this is fine. If it takes you two or three attempts to cut through a branch it’s not the end of the world, but you will learn from this and next time you will probably reach for something else.

There are times when doing this can cause more damage than you want, since you are having to hack at it a few times, or you may find that the branch doesn’t cut all the way through, but usually this is more of a problem with your tools being blunt, than their size.

If the tools are sharp, you can get away with using a slightly wrong size tool.

Not Learning How To Prune Is The Biggest Mistake A Beginner Can Make

Using your bonsai tools is easy, you can’t really mess this up to much and all of the mistakes I have mentioned so far are very easy to avoid.

The biggest mistake you can make is to not learn how to actually prune your bonsai. You need to know what branches you are pruning and why. Which ones do you remove, or which ones do you shorten.

If you are just blindly snipping things, you will get nowhere.

You need to read – How To Prune A Bonsai Tree – A Beginners Guide – and make sure you understand what you are doing with your trees.

Bonsai is not hard, but you do need to learn the basic principles. Then all you have to do is be patient and consistently repeat things over a number of years and you will see success.

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can be aware of any potential mistakes you can make with your bonsai tools, and more importantly, now avoid them.

Really if you focus on learning about how to prune and understanding what you need to be doing, the tools themselves do not really matter. Focus on learning the skill and everything else will fall in to place. 

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Bonsai Tools)