The type is almost microscopic, so we’ll synopsize a bit (see below for a slightly magnified version): 2. Use a concave cutter to score around the base of the branch you are jinning. 3 and 4. Crush the bark with pliers. 5. Pull the bark off with your fingers. 6. Create a natural shape by using concave cutters to apply small cuts and to pull of the resulting wood threads (you can use pliers to pull the threads if you want). From a article by David Benavente in Bonsai Today issue 85.

An elegant solution, but what about other tools?
I use a draw knife for jinning and carving. It’s a great tool; the more you use it, the more you realize just how versatile it can be. And of course, there are a host of other hand tools and power carving tools you can play with and achieve great results. Still, using just two very common tools (pliers and concave cutters) is an elegant solution, especially if your tool box is sparse.

This box of Flexcut carving tools includes a draw knife (on the left), an indispensable tool for a range of tasks. The other five tools all come in handy as well.

This soulful tree is exceptionally clean, fluid and well balanced; especially considering how far to the right it is leaning. I lifted it from François’ website. It looks like a very small needled pine, maybe a dwarf Scot’s of some kind, though I can’t really tell.

Dead-on deadwood artist
François Jeker does some of the most outrageous deadwood carving anywhere. If you don’t believe me, check this out. Or go to his site. Or buy his excellent book (en Espanol tambien). Or best of all, go see him at Rosade Bonsai Studio on May 15th.

These illustrations by François give you some glimpse into the depth his understanding of deadwood (and of his talent as an illustrator). They originally appeared in Bonsai Today issue 103 and were featured last year in one of our Jin & Shari posts.

If you want one (no discounts though)
In agreement with Marco, Stone Lantern is acting as the Ichiban’s U.S. (and beyond) distributor. The one caveat is that this tool cannot be discounted. Your price is $350.00 plus shipping, no matter what discounts Stone Lantern is currently running.

A multiplicity of uses. This illustration and the text below (both provided by Marco), give you a pretty good idea of the Ichiban‘s versatility.

What Marco Invernizzi has to say about his soon to be famous new tool
The follow text by Marco provides  detailed (and enthusiastic) descriptions of the uses and advantages of the Ichiban.

“ICHIBAN is the new revolutionary bonsai multi-use tool created, designed and tested by Marco Invernizzi and produced by hand by Masakuni in Japan.

Why will the Ichiban soon become one of the most popular bonsai tools in the world?

1) Its innovative ergonomic design helps you to assume a healthier and more comfortable back, shoulder and elbow position enabling you to work longer and with less fatigue.
2) Its effective weight is slightly lower than that of a standard tool on the market but, in your hands, its design makes it seem 50% lighter than any other bonsai tool.
3) 7 tools are united in the ICHIBAN design. This will enable you to work faster and remain concentrated on your bonsai and at the same time have a much lighter toolbox. ICHIBAN is: shears for shoots, shears for small branches, shears for large branches and roots, wire cutter, chisel, hammer and pliers.
4) The two ICHIBAN blades are united by a special rivet of new design, 4 times stronger than a conventional one, enabling you to use its blades to create jin, shari, to bend branches and cut aluminium wire and branches even 4 mm (1/8″) thick.
5) The two ICHIBAN blades are also 20% longer than a normal tool, enabling you to have access only with its point where before you did not manage to arrive, thus helping you to keep your hands far from the most delicate parts of your bonsai. Even with more intensive use, the blades length will make it practically useless to sharpen them for many years.
6) ICHIBAN is forged by hand one by one with the best, most sought-after materials available by these artisan blacksmiths who have made Masakuni world leader in the production of bonsai tools for the last three generations. If maintained in suitable conditions ICHIBAN is guaranteed rustproof. When you purchase ICHIBAN you will receive free of charge a blade cleaner specifically created for ICHIBAN which will be very useful to remove resin residues from the blades.
7) The design of the ICHIBAN grip, together with its special rubber coating, will enable people with large hands, women, nervous people and anyone who cares about the health of his hands to use a bonsai tool without annoying finger pain and without creating hard skin. ICHIBAN is a tool that may be used with the right or left hand and its grip enables you to use it in the opposite direction, with the blades pointing upwards, thus arriving where no other shears have ever arrived before.
8) Bonsai tools of different makes, besides being mostly produced by the same factory, are identical, making it easy to lose or exchange them unintentionally with those of someone else. ICHIBAN has instead a specially created space on which to engrave, write or mark its unmistakeable sign. Therefore, from now on, if someone steals your ICHIBAN it will be because he can’t do without it!
9) When normal shears fall, the point often breaks, making them unusable. The same points of the ICHIBAN blades have been designed to make them unbreakable and, if ICHIBAN falls, there is an 80% possibility that, due to its weight, the chisel point touches the ground before the thin point. This point sharpened on one side has been designed to rapidly enable you to use the shears as knife or chisel to cut the bark or scratch undesired residues.
10) ICHIBAN will not tear the pockets of your trousers or the toolbox. Its innovative design will enable you to put it in your pockets even more easily and rapidly than a cowboy’s pistol (Marco likes cowboy stuff).
11) To insert the wire and hold the tool in your hand at the same time isn’t a problem, with ICHIBAN. You need only raise your forearm and open your hand and in a second ICHIBAN will turn 180°, leaving thumb, forefinger and middle finger free to apply the wire. Its position, limited weight and diagonal non-pointed blade will enable you to take, bend and apply the aluminium or copper wire with full freedom.
12) Its wonderful silk-lined wooden box is hand-made by the same craftsman who created the boxes of the artistic objects of the private collection of the Japanese emperor. ICHIBAN is the ideal gift for anyone who wants to improve the quality and pleasure of his work with bonsai.
13) Purchasing ICHIBAN you can enter the ICHIBAN CLUB, a site created to communicate all the ICHIBAN owners all over the world and receive useful news, updates and advice from Marco Invernizzi in person.
14) ICHIBAN isn’t a bonsai tool only for experts. In many years of career Marco Invernizzi has given over one thousand seminars in 5 continents working with bonsaists with the widest range of ability, style, techniques and characteristics. Thinking about all of them, we offer you the greatest, most useful revolution of the world of bonsai in the last 100 years: ICHIBAN. ALL IN ONE, ONE FOR ALL!”

Each Ichiban comes in its own handsome wooden gift box.

If you want your own Ichiban (no discounts though)
In agreement with Marco, Stone Lantern is acting as the Ichiban’s U.S. (and beyond) distributor. The one caveat is that this tool cannot be discounted. Your price is $350.00 plus shipping, no matter what discounts Stone Lantern is currently running.

Carl Morrow sent us this digitalized revision (and two others, see below) of a juniper that was originally submitted to our ‘Fearless Bonsai Warrior‘ program, by John Romano. This is the second critique of John’s juniper that has been submitted to Bonsai Bark (here’s the other).

Carl’s turn with John’s Juniper
The photos and text in this post were submitted by Carl Morrow. Carl has been here before with his own tree. Now he’s tackling John Romano’s juniper.

“A tree needs to tell a consistent story and when one has an outstanding feature or focal point then the theme created needs to be repeated through other parts of the tree to create a consistent image.

This is a lovely tree that I would happily play with. Deadwood is a very powerful focal point and it is difficult to look anywhere else when there is a stark white area on the tree. In the current form, John’s tree has single piece of deadwood that is not repeated anywhere else. What could have caused just one major branch to die without affecting anything else on the tree? The tip of the jin is firmly pointing downwards while the rest of the (trunk line and foliage) tree has an upward feel. For this reason I find the jin jarring and unnatural. I would do one of two things to solve this.”

Carl’s revision #1 (without the lines) and his explanation
“Cutting off the jin allows attention to fall on the beautiful trunk line and attractive foliage arrangement. I would extend the foliage out to the right a bit to create more balance in this, now gentle, tree. The main branch on the left is becoming visually straight (something that seems to happen often in Juniperus procumbens var nana) and so some work needs to go into creating a stepped feeling that repeats the angle and curves in the trunk. This can be done by bending the branch along with using foliage to create the feeling of steps.”

Carl’s revision #2 with explanation
“My preferred option would be to create more deadwood in the tree that would repeat the motif seen by the existing jin. The shari on the trunk repeats the line created by the jin (although once done, it would be the jin repeating the trunk shari!).

The second branch on the left would be killed off to create another jin that picks up on the line created by the hook part of the existing jin and it also opens out the canopy which is consistent with a tree that is living in harsh conditions that create deadwood, curves and angles in trees.

The little bar branch jins on the main curve of the trunk are sorted out by removing the left hand one. Again the stepped effect needs to be emphasized in the branches. Your eye now sees a number of white areas that have a consistent pattern that contributes to the direction of the tree and so you then have a look at the whole planting rather than just a single area.”

For more on Juniper bonsai check out our Masters’ Series Juniper book.

Here’s a great example of an English hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) that started as large tree that was cut down and carved. The artist is Graham Potter of Kaizen Bonsai.

Carving video by Graham Potter
If you are interested in carving as well as reducing large field grown trees, check out the video below. It might just open up an entirely new way of doing things for you and your bonsai.

In this series of photos (from our Juniper book), Hideki Nakayatsu turns a needle juniper on its side to work on the apical jin (jin can be either a dead branch or a dead top of the trunk). He is using is a draw knife to carve natural looking grooves in the wood. Though there are other ways to get grooves in deadwood (dremels come to mind), a draw knife is a tried and true old standard.

This close up, though far from perfect, shows the grooves a little better. Deadwood naturally cracks and grooves along its length as it ages, so offering a helping hand is a quick way to give your bonsai an old weathered look. One secret to achieving a natural look is to let the knife move with the wood’s grain. It’s easier and the results are better.

A collection of carving tools, with draw knifes on either end. This photo and the one below are from Bonsai Today issue 85.

A close up of the head of a draw knife.

Mr Nakayatsu’s juniper, finished (for now) and turned right side up.

Go to Jin and Shari #4 for links to earlier posts on the topic.

These four stages of natural aging on deadwood are from an article by François Jeker that appeared in Bonsai Today 103 (out of print). Francois is a accomplished bonsai artist (and deadwood master), gardener, author (Bonsai Aesthetics) and more.

Stage one
A freshly peeled branch or trunk will have completely smooth wood.

Stage two
Over the years, due to drying in the sun and wind, the wood will split into apical cracks (see below for more on apical growth and cracks).

Stage three
Much later, cracks that are perpendicular to the apical cracks will appear and form a “snakeskin” pattern.

Stage four
Continued exposure to harsh weather, fungal decay and xylophagous insects (insects that feed on woody plants) hollow the deadwood out in this final stage.

Apical growth
You can see signs of apical growth in veins and cracks that follow sap as it climbs from the roots to the tips of the branches.

Concentric growth
Concentric growth will first be visible in concentric hollows and healing calluses. You can also trace it in hollow trunks.

Coming together
Apical and concentric growth come together where branches grow off trunks. When this happens, interesting patterns are often formed.

This classic Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora) shows all three types of deadwood: sabamiki (hollow trunk), shari (deadwood on the trunk) and jin (dead branches or dead treetop; if you look closely you’ll see a few little dead branches sticking out). The tree is from our Pocket Bonsai Gallery (it originally appeared on the cover on Bonsai Today issue 43).

Backing up and starting over
Even though we’ve already posted a couple times on the topic, I’ve decided to go back to the beginning for those of you who don’t know much about deadwood on bonsai. If you’ve been around the deadwood block, then stay posted for some meatier stuff soon.

It started with Mother Nature
The idea for using deadwood in bonsai comes from nature. In fact, if you look around, it’s everywhere. Especially on conifers, where deadwood tends to last longer.

It would be very difficult to improve upon this ancient Bristlecone pine‘s (Pinus aristata) magnificent deadwood. Several thousand years of wind, sun, blowing sand, snow, rain, ice and almost everything else in Mother Nature’s arsenal, have created a masterpiece no human hand could ever duplicate. You can go take a look if you want the full effect; it resides in the Inyo National Forest in California.

Naturally occurring or by human hand (or both)
Many collected bonsai (and an occasional nursery plant) have natural deadwood (particularly noteworthy are the famous collected junipers from Japan). Usually, this natural deadwood is enhanced (or least altered) by carving. The other way deadwood occurs is to make it by killing branches or tree tops (jin) or sections of trunks (shari), or even carving out hollows in trunks (sabamiki). We’ll get into how to do these dirty deeds on some upcoming posts.

This Needle juniper (Juniperus rigida) has a tree top jin and shari that runs up the entire length of the trunk. In fact, it looks as though the two might be one continuous strip of deadwood. This much deadwood does not pose a health problem, provided that there is at least one living vein from the roots to the foliage. In this case, you can see at least two living veins. The tree is from our Pocket Bonsai Gallery (it originally appeared on the cover on Bonsai Today issue 81).

Previous posts on deadwood are here and here.

Stay posted for more on the topic.

A detail of a Mugo pine (Pinus mugo, also called Swiss mountain pine) that was carved by François Jeker eight years before the photo was taken. François’ expert carving, and the sun, rain, wind and frost have combined to create a natural look and feel. The photo is from Bonsai Today issue 104 (out of print).

François Jeker
Though I’ve never met him and have only seen photos of him working and the results (like the one above), I suspect that François Jeker is one of the foremost experts, if not THE foremost expert, on deadwood in the West. If you’d like some evidence, check out Bonsai Today issues 103, 104 & 105 (103 & 104 are out of print, but don’t despair, we’ll run François’ articles right here as part of our deadwood series).

A little teaser
Here’s a little teaser from François’ book, Bonsai Aethetics, to get you started thinking about deadwood (if you haven’t already started). “According to the hardness of the wood, each species of tree will have a different deadwood. Wood of average hardness will result in a hollow trunk. Hard wood will result in a hollow trunk and large jinned branches. Very hard wood will result in a hollow or deadwood trunk and jinned branches, including even the most slender ones.” Obviously, François has lot more to say on the subject, but maybe that’s enough to whet your appetite.

A detailed view of a spruce trunk collected at a high altitude. From François Jeker’s Bonsai Aesthetics, volume 1.

François and the Master of masters, Masahiko Kimura. This photo appears on François’ website, and a cropped version appears in Bonsai Aesthetics.

Here‘s our previous post on deadwood.

This stately Foemina Juniper (Juniperus chinensis ‘Foemina’) is a pretty good example of what you can do with jin and shari. It is part of the wonderful world class bonsai collection at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. It was donated by James (Jim) and Helen Barrett and currently resides in the John Y Naka North American Pavilion.

What are Jin & Shari?
Jin are dead branches (intentionally created or naturally occurring) that can lend of feeling of age and character to a bonsai. Shari is deadwood (sometimes called driftwood) on the trunk of a bonsai. Like jin, shari can be intentionally created or can occur naturally (usually on collected trees).

The carving on this impressively powerful old English Yew (Taxus baccata) occurred at the expert hands of Kevin Wilson. It resides (or resided?) at Nick Peace’s bonsai nursery in Kent, England. The photo was taken by Simon Carr. You can read Simon’s photo-rich, step-by-step article about the transformation of this old tree in Bonsai Today issue 106.

Carving
Most jin & shari is carved in order to impart a natural feeling, or an impressive sculptural look, or a combination of the two (we’ll save the question of naturalistic vs highly stylized bonsai for another time). Both hand tools and power tools can be used to carve. The impressively carved and styled yew in the photo above was carved using power tools; carving this much yew wood (which is very hard, to say the least) by hand, would take almost forever.

Stay tuned
We plan on running a series of posts on creating and carving deadwood. It’s a vast and fascinating topic, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, check out carving maven Francois Jeker’s articles in Bonsai Today 103, 104 & 105 (we’ve sold out of 103 & 104, but 105 is still in stock) and Francois excellent book, Bonsai Aesthetics.