Wiring and Shaping Your Bonsai

by Randy Clark, Charlotte, NC

Wire is placed on a bonsai for one purpose... and one purpose only.  To allow you to bend the branch where you wish it to go.  Like a hammer or a screwdriver, wire is a tool.  It allows to you accomplish a task in the most efficient way possible. 

Over the years I have been amazed at the amount of mis information I have encountered on the subject of bonsai.  People seem to be determined to believe that there is some sort of great oriental secret which to which all bonsai practitioners are privy and which we secretly use to shrink and miniaturize our trees.  Bonsai people, like wizards and warlocks, observe strange rites in the practice of their art which no doubt  involves burying a dead cat under the front porch during the dark of the moon.  I have, (I kid you not!),   had people ask me if the purpose of the wire was to cause the tree great pain.  They were sure that the creation of bonsai  had some relationship to the ancient Chinese practice of binding the feet of noble women.  When I would smile and patiently explain what the wire was actually used for, they seemed.... somehow.... disappointed. 

The ancient oriental secret is simply that wire is used on bonsai in the same way that a dentist uses wire to construct braces on a child's teeth.  Wire is nothing more than a temporary shaping device and is designed to be removed a short time later, after the wire has done its job.  It is certainly not the only way to bend a branch and, by no means, mandatory in the creation of a bonsai.  There is even one school of bonsai practiced in China (the Ling Nan School) which actually discourages its students from wiring trees.  For most of us, however, wire is the easiest and simplest way to create the look we want and has therefore become an integral part of the art of bonsai. 

Copper Wire

Solid core copper wire is the traditional substance used for shaping bonsai.  It is the same stuff used to bring electrical power into your home.  Obviously, we take the plastic coating off.  A variety of gauges (thicknesses) will be needed varying from the diameter of a string to the diameter of a pencil.  Thicker wire will be needed to bend thicker branches, medium wire for medium branches, and so on.  Thinner gauges of wire work fine right off the shelf, however,  thicker gauges of wire are so stiff that they will need to be annealed in a fire before they can be easily used in the bonsai process. 

Traditional Japanese textbooks instruct beginners to anneal their wire in a rice paper fire.  Here in the west, we're a little short in the rice paper department,  The truth is, any good heat source will work.  I use my barbeque pit, but an oven or a plain old wood campfire will also do the trick.  The business of heating the wire causes molecular changes to occur which make the wire softer and easier to bend.  The physics have something to do with the normal positive/negative alignment of the molecules in the wire being scrambled by the heating process.  The first time the wire is bent, the molecular alignment returns and the wire instantly regains its former rigidity.  Simply stated... annealing the wire will make it easier for you to wrap around the branch and as you do so it will become harder and have more holding power.   

A word of caution to those attempting the annealing process for the first time.  The wire must be heated ONLY until it glows red and then immediately removed from the fire and allowed to cool slowly.  If the wire is overheated it will crystallize  and  will crumble like uncooked spaghetti the first time you try and use it.   Believe us... we speak from experience.  In fact it was one of the reasons we began looking into the advantages of using aluminum wire.

Aluminum Wire

Our apologies.... this section is still under construction.  We will post more information here as soon as possible.