Trunk Bend and Twist using Grant Bowies Drill out technique

[siddhar]

Hi all, I gave Grant Bowies drill out technique a go on one of my JBP's thats been bothering me with a straight section of trunk. This is my first attempt at any major bending techniques, and I think it was quite successful. Any advice on further branch placement is welcome, and would be much appreciated. What do you think of the result?

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[Craig]

Nice work Sidd, curious as to which side you drilled out? the inside or outside of the curve.

[siddhar]

Hi Craig, well that was the part I found difficult to get my head around
so I drilled out both the outside and inside at various points
Im not as stoked with the amount of movement I got with this first go...

[Craig]

Both sides very interesting, keep us posted

[siddhar]

That may have been my biggest mistake!

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi Sidd, thank you for posting. It is certainly an improvement. I am not sure why it may have been your mistake? I think it will heal nicely.

Best regards.

That may have been my biggest mistake!

[Craig]

Same Daiviet , i too hope it recovers,and it is a good improvement Sidd

[Andrew F]

Good job mate,

I'm pinching a cordless drill from my old man this weekend for the sake of trying this method on a dead straight mugo [wish me luck]


Thank the bonsai gods for guys like you and Grant for sharing tips like this with the community.

[Craig]

Good job mate,

I'm pinching a cordless drill from my old man this weekend for the sake of trying this method on a dead straight mugo [wish me luck]


Thank the bonsai gods for guys like you and Grant for sharing tips like this with the community.

Good luck Drew, the main thing to remember when trying this is "take your time" , if you rush then you could end up damaging too much cambium. Wrap fairly tightly and be careful when you "Twist the trunk", as you do not want the bark to seperate from the wood. Have fun mate

[NBPCA]

Good job mate,

I'm pinching a cordless drill from my old man this weekend for the sake of trying this method on a dead straight mugo [wish me luck]


Thank the bonsai gods for guys like you and Grant for sharing tips like this with the community.

Good luck Drew, the main thing to remember when trying this is "take your time" , if you rush then you could end up damaging too much cambium. Wrap fairly tightly and be careful when you "Twist the trunk", as you do not want the bark to seperate from the wood. Have fun mate

Very good advice and I would not be pushing too hard at this time of year. You can tighten up the curve in a few months if you want.

And the trechnique is to drill on the inside of the curve for best results.

Also this was not my technique! I saw it being done down in Melbourne about 5 years ago and have just improvised with the clear tape instead of rubber etc.

Grant

[Gerard]

I first saw this method used in a workshop with Hirotoshi Saito in 2006. (this was the first time I met Hiro but I believe most people had seen him do it in previous visits)
In my opinion it is best to leave serious bending of pines until mid winter when they are dormant. Less sap flowing and less chance of bark separating.
Spring is the perfect time to feed and grow. Thicker trunks and more buds is what I aim to achieve, I have lots of project pines which I intend to take to workshops when Hiro visits Melbourne and Ballarat next July.

[kcpoole]

Nice effort Sidd and great improvement

I am a great fan of getting some of the straightness out of lots of our trees and any method that works is good for me.

Velvet, Take pics of your Mugho and post for us so we can all learn too

Ken

[Andrew F]

Good job mate,

I'm pinching a cordless drill from my old man this weekend for the sake of trying this method on a dead straight mugo [wish me luck]


Thank the bonsai gods for guys like you and Grant for sharing tips like this with the community.

Good luck Drew, the main thing to remember when trying this is "take your time" , if you rush then you could end up damaging too much cambium. Wrap fairly tightly and be careful when you "Twist the trunk", as you do not want the bark to seperate from the wood. Have fun mate

Thanks for the tip and vote of confidence, got the Newcastle bonsai show on tomorrow so hopefully i source some inspiration from there.

No doubt ill come home with a gnarly pot for it

@ Ken, thanks mate, will do. I take pics of everything to look back on in the coming years. I feel its a good practice.

Edit: I will be using raffia thought not the grafting tape.

[Andrew F]

Didn't go all out today, none of the bends i got today feel natural but are heading in the right direction. I wanted to pull all bends tighter and perform some twisting but i'll have to wait and come back to it in a months time.

2-3 feet of lanky mugo.

[Craig]

Drew, ,

Firstly nice job mate, the trunk line has an appeal about it that i seem to like , i realise it's not what u want yet but it's a great start. I'm so glad you didn't cut all the branches off aswell, think new leaders/jins. Could you please expain what you did here? What did you drill out ? If you don't mind me saying, your wiring needs some practise and you should of used wires twice as thick as you did, none the less good job