Kusamura Bonsai Club

Bending Dead Wood & About Wood Preservatives

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From Kathy Shaner's Presentation at the August 2000 Meeting

At the August Kusamura meeting, Kathy Shaner began her talk on jin and shari with the question, "What are you trying to create when you do bonsai?" And the answer: "The look and feel of the struggle a tree in nature has gone through over a long period of time". Wiring is one technique that can be used to create the illusion of age. Kathy made the following additional points in her talk:

Every tree has to have a story line: is it in the mountains, on a riverbank, etc.

Purify the design "Brush the little stuff away!" Show just the essence.

When carving on a tree, one should have a reason, know the way each species shows dead wood in nature, and under what weather conditions it grows. Dead wood should represent something that happened long ago and happens over and over again. In a collected tree, if possible, incorporate any deadwood it had when it was dug. One should be consistent; hence soft curves in the bottom of the trunk, should be carried through to the top.

Deep cuts into a thick, live trunk damage a tree and should be avoided. Jin and shari should stay on a tree "forever". Therefore, they can't be too thin, and wood preservatives should be renewed periodically. One has to know how dead wood weathers in nature. Pines have soft wood that soon wears away, so they have few jin, especially on inside branches. Junipers have hard wood and often have jin. They can have holes in the trunk where branches broke off. On all trees, over time, jin become shorter and have more rounded tips.

Kathy illustrated all her points with large photographs of real bonsai, some excellent, others flawed.

Next, she demonstrated how to bend and twist existing jin to improve the lines of a tree or make the jin more interesting. Bending, she said, is best done during the rainy season when the jin are saturated with moisture.

Figure 1 -- Before bending.

1. Protect the live wood on the tree by wrapping it with several layers of crinkled, heavy aluminum foil. Cover the soil surface with the same foil, and also place wet towels on top of it, if desired.

2. Place a wire on the jin. It will be used to hold the newly bent wood in place for several days until it has set.

3. Wrap the jin tightly with strips of wet cloth or paper towels. These will supply the steam that makes it possible to bend the wood.

Figure 2 -- Foil protects the trunk and soil.
Paper towels on the branch to bent.

4. Cover the towels or strips with crinkled foil to keep the wood from catching fire.

5. Ignite a handheld propane torch and adjust the flame to a sharp, blue point. Heat the lower two-thirds of the jin evenly. Keep the flame away from live areas.

    Figure 3 -- Heating the foil covered branch.

    6. Have another person hold the base of the jin with a wrench and steady the pot while you hold the torch in one hand and a wrench or pliers in the other. Use the wrench to twist and bend the jin. It is usually best to twist along previous bends: "go with the tissue."

    Figure 4 -- Wrenches in action.

    7. In order to hold the newly bent jin in place, use the wire you applied to it in Step 2 to secure it to an appropriately placed heavy jin on the trunk or to the wires that secure the tree in its pot. Kathy said that you can bend a jin up to two inches thick by this method.

     

    Figure 5 -- Attaching guy wires to hold the bend in place.

    Figure 6 -- The Final Result.

Finally, Kathy spoke about wood preservatives. Lime sulfur is the material used most frequently, but it must be reapplied from time to time, and its color is a uniform white. (Before applying a new coat of lime sulfur, the old surface should be brushed with a wire brush or toothbrush.) The new coat should be brushed on following the grain of the wood.

Kathy now prefers using a wood hardener. Minwax Wood Hardener, available at Ace Hardware, is her favorite. "If done right, it lasts forever," and the color is more natural. Any shininess can be brushed away after it dries. This material should be used only outdoors. The soil under a tree should be protected with wet paper towels. Eye protection and gloves should be worn. Use a small brush held against the wood until the fluid soaks in. Then, move to another area. One can sand, drill, and paint over the dried hardener, but the treated wood cannot be re-bent later. It should not be put on newly formed jin that are still wet.

 

Kusamura thanks you, Kathy, for a very informative talk and perfectly executed demonstration.

 

Last Updated September 25, 2000.
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