Bonsai: tools: how to sharpen them

The expression a bad craftsman blames their tools applies to bonsai as much as anything else. In some cases it can be bad or poorly maintained tools. One of the first ways your tools will fail you is by being blunt.

Fortunately blunt tools can be easily rectified and continue to provide reliable performance and service for years. Sharpening your bonsai tools will also reduce costs in the long term as you replace them less frequently. You will need to take on a small up front cost.

Like wiring your tree, pruning at the right time and place, etc, sharpening your tools is skill. It will take some practice if you have not done so before. If you have sharpened a kitchen knife before then your scissors and similar will be no problem.

It is the tools without a straight blade that will prove more challenging. Knob cutters and concave cutters. Both of these have practically round outside edges. You want to keep this geometry or else the blade will not cut properly or for long.

The inside edge of knob cutters can be sharpened with apiece of quality automotive sand paper. This is a much finer grit than that used for wood working and can be washed clean of metal particles. A concave cutter uses the same approach as we show here but with a piece of wooden dowel that matches the curve of the blade edge.

We used 400, 600 and 1200 grit sand paper. You can forgo the 1200 grit paper. The 600 helps ot clean the blade of any burs and minimizes the amount of metal taken from the inside of the tools cutting surface.

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