Wire gauge is a measurement of how large a wire is, either in diameter or cross sectional area. This determines the amount of electrical current a wire can safely carry, as well as its electrical resistance and weight per unit of length.
Bonsai Wire
By Ruth Morgan
One of the essential tools for shaping bonsai trees is bonsai wire. The wiring technique involves coiling wire around the branches and trunks and then bending them to the desired position.
Copper wire is annealed by heat, this aligns the atoms and softens it. Once the wire is twisted onto your tree it hardens in place. This has the advantage of providing a much stronger hold with a thinner piece of wire.
Bonsai Wire
Wire - The "Magic Wand" of Bonsai Tree Training.
Click Here For Wire Size Conversion Chart ...
Wire is generally made by pulling a rod through progressively smaller dies until it reaches the correct diameter. This work hardens the alloy and can make it too hard and stiff to use.
- Wire tightly, but not too tightly. Test by bending the branch: if the wire bites into the bark your coils are too tight, if it grates the bark, your coils are too loose. The wire should hold the branch nicely if the coils are the right tightness ...
While I wire my bonsai trees almost all year round, from spring till early winter, many bonsai gardeners like to wire their bonsai trees in the autumn when the branches are bare.
Generally speaking the thicker the Bonsai wire is, the stiffer and harder to manipulate the metal is. Aluminium Bonsai wire more pliable and therefore easier for anyone beginning Bonsai to apply.
Wire Cutters
As a bonsai grower, a wire cutter is an essential item of equipment in your set of tools. It has a curved head that's been purposely designed to prevent injury to the trunk and branches when removing wires.
Trimming Shears ...
Wire
Wire obtained from specialist (Bonsai) suppliers is Aluminum, and is available in two types, Plain (Silver), and 'Anodised', where the wire is given a brown coating.
Wire when you have time. Wire the branches with loops at 45 degree angles for best holding power.
Wire your trees often and you will have better trees.
WIRE
Wire is commonly used in bonsai to allow accurate shaping and positioning of branches and trunks. It is also needed for anchoring in newly potted trees and drainage mesh.
Is wire necessary to create a bonsai?
No. Many people use a "clip-and-grow" method. However, it would be difficult to create a well styled bonsai without at lest some wire for refinement.
How do you determine which size wire needed?
BONSAI WIRE CUTTERS
Training bonsai normally involves the use of wire to position and shape trunk and branches. Either aluminum or annealed copper wire is used for this purpose.
Bonsai Wire
Wiring is generally part of the bonsai styling process. Here are some frequently asked questions.
What is the actual purpose of wire on a bonsai?
WIRE CUTTERS: while you will not need them immediately, I suggest purchasing a pair of bonsai wire cutters. If you put wire on, you will eventually have to take it off.
Wire is wrapped tightly and often covers a large portion of the tree. It needs to be snipped off in small sections without stabbing or snipping the trained branch.
The wire cutters pictured here are designed specifically for removing bonsai wire.
Wire the trunk using anodised aluminium wire (available from Imperial Bonsai Nursery) first then wire thicker branches starting at the lowest part.
This skill takes a lot of practice.
Wire - Various sizes of aluminium or copper wire that are used to reshape the trunk and branches of a Bonsai.
Wood sealer - A protective paste that is used to seal cuts after pruning.
Japanese Bonsai Terms: ...
Wire is used to hold a bonsai in the pot, by extending up through the drainage hole, across the root or around the trunk, and downward through the hole again, wound together or spread out underneath the pot.
WIRE & WIRING
Why Do We Wire? - We wire because it allows us, the bonsai enthusiast, to train, to shape, to style, and ultimately, to create bonsai. Bonsai is a living art form. It is a collaboration between nature and us.
To wire this branch which will have the emphasis mainly on the last half out toward the end of the branch, you need to have a starting point or an anchor point if you will. I started on the trunk with this one just below where the branch is located.
These wire cutters are designed specifically for removing bonsai wire. Although enthusiasts new to bonsai sometimes substitute standard wire cutters, ...
Use of wire to bend and shape a tree in a snaking pattern to create a visual effect and to shorten the overall length of the branch.
Sokan (Sou kan) (Sojo) ...
Wiring: Wire during the growing period.
Notes: Serissa are not hardy plants and need to be protected from temperatures below 7°C which means that in the UK and Europe it has to be grown indoors. However, there-in lies the problem.
Training wire is used to train the bonsai branches the way that you want them to grow. Wire is typically anodized aluminum or solid copper.
Aluminum wire has the advantage of being easy to bend and wound around your tree. There's also a type of aluminum wire that is brown in color which allows it to blend easily into the color of your tree.
Wind the wire around the
thinner branch, then wind
it along with the wire that
fixes the thick branch.
Wind the two wires
together to ensure the
branches are steadily fixed.
Coppered wire, the standard wire every Bonsaïst uses to wire trees. It bends smoothly, but lasts strong.
More information
Go to the Bonsai tools forum.
Check the Bonsai tools video.
1: Use a wire cutter to snip the wire on the bottom of the pot that secures the tree to the soil. Being careful not to cut the screen clip.
2: Cut the soil loose from the pot and carefully remove.
Bonsai wire cutters - particularly useful for removing old wire from branches. The rounded tip enables wire to be cut from the branches without harming the tree.
Aluminium wire is probably the best for this job, as it's usually pretty soft and thus easier to bend around the contours of the hole without the risk of chipping the pot.
Remove training wire (if any) after several months by snipping into short lengths or unwinding any thin sizes. Do not allow wire to stay on the tree long enough to create scars.
After trimming, wire the tree for shaping. According to basic techniques, the wiring should start at the lower and bigger branches and end at the higher and smaller branches.
A set of bonsai wire cutters is also a good idea since these trees get there unique shape by being trained with the use of wire. The bonsai wire cutters differ from regular ones in that they have a shorter head.
W: Whetstone
wire
Y: Yamadori - Japanese term for a tree collected from the wild mountain, or a tree with that appearance.
yose-ue - Japanese term for forest or group planting ...
Do not allow the wire to cut into this new growth. Remove wire as soon as this starts to happen - could be 6-8 weeks in growing season. Cut it off as unwinding can damage a branch that has taken many years to grow.
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It is pointless, and dangerous, to wire an unhealthy tree. The way that wiring works is that, in bending the wood, you stress, and sometimes damage the cells. The tree, while repairing the damage, grows into the shape imposed on it by the wire.
Next - if you think it is necessary, you can wire your tree. Make sure that the wire you have chosen (copper wire is best) is the right thickness for the branches and is able to be manipulated easily.
Shears, wire clippers, a knife, a chopstick (Uh huh.), bonsai wire, drainage screens, watering can or hose, spray bottle (you can skip this one if your spray nozzle on the hose has a mist setting) your new soil and the tree in question.
The man experienced in training with wire changes ordinary little trees into different forms almost instantly, sometimes to a shape seen in naturally dwarfed trees.
You only have to look at some of the commercially produced trees available over Christmas to see the adverse effects that incorrect wiring causes; wire that is biting with the bark because it has been left on too long, or applied too tightly.
Crossed or very loose wire; trees with deep or excessive wire scars.
Spacers: these are OK for at home shaping, but not for a public show.
Pot-within-a-pot or an ordinary clay flowerpot, or plastic nursery ID tags.
Copper wire that has first been annealed in a low-temperature fire is preferred. After it has cooled, it is wrapped around the branches in the direction the branch is to be bent.
To make the branches flexible before wiring, do not water the plant the day before you wire it. Begin at the bottom of the tree when wiring and shaping, and work upward. Anchor the end of the wire at the base of the tree by pushing it into the soil.
Because of their thin, easily scarred bark, only aluminum wire is safe to use on satsuki. Applications of heavy wire can lead to scarring and wire cuts. Special care is required.
When it comes to the actual shaping of the tree, use copper wire to hold the tree into its shape until it begins growing in that manner.
Most false cypresses are easy to wire, but branches may take a while to set and may need to be re-wired several times to avoid cutting in to the tree.
Then wire the tree in order to get the branches to grow in a specific position and direction and to enhance the look of the tree. The wire should be removed after 6 months. Usually the branch should then stay in that position on it's own.
Wire is never meant to be considered in a final display of bonsai, so to place too much admiration in its application is misguided thinking. Wire is a tool. Keep that in mind when you judge an artist's work.
Shaping is achieved by wrapping the trunk or chosen branches with wire to guide their growing direction. Once the tree "understands" the direction in which it should grow, the wire must be cut away before the bark grows over it.
When using wire on fuchsia main stems/trunks and branches be very careful, the reason being is that they mark very easily and can also become very brittle. Wire more on the ‘loose' side than on the ‘tight' side. Patience is required.
Paul does not wire branchlets into flat planes. Instead, he emphasizes the unique fronds of cedar, rather than obscuring them in a densely pinched pad or overpowering their character by flattening the planes with wire.
To retain this style, it is necessary to constantly wire young branches, as they grow upright for a great length until they start bending, which is not suitable for a miniaturised tree.
If I cut it off then I'll wire down the branch above it to fill in the gap (green arrow). The branch on the other side (orange arrow) will be allowed to grow considerably to get it to thicken up, then it'll be cut back to the shape of the tree.
The trees are shaped with wire and root pruning over a period of years. The plant develops in the shape desired and the artificial aids are removed. From year to year the dwarf tree continues to develop having settled into the desired shape.
Particularly valuable are the illustrations of how to wrap wire onto bonsai branches to make the little trees grow with strategic twists and turns.
Copper or aluminium wire is wrapped around branches and trunks, holding the branch in place or shape until it eventually lignifies and maintains the desired shape (at which point the wire should be removed).
Bonsai wire cutters differ from ordinary wire cutters in a way that they are smaller and have a very sharp and precise cutting tip for better cuts especially near the branches.
One tends to uses a lot of wire when training their Bonsai. A set of good Bonsai wire cutters is needed to properly handle Bonsai wire.
 See also: Bonsai, Tree, Plant, Growing, Pruning
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