Heavy bending ... Introducing movement

[eliass]

Hi all the plan tomorrow is to do some heavy bending and to introduce some bends to a couple of trees...

Trees to work on are:

Red pine and black pine







And cedar deodora



What are your thoughts about the best method I am thinking rebar and jack and then wiring them in place with guy wires.

Any suggestions on trunk direction?

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi eliass,

I am not a strong boy, so last time I used cheap turnbuckles to do the bending for me.

I drilled out the middle, put copper wires inside, then bounded copper wires on the outsides.

Then used the turnbuckles to pull the trunk into position, and hold it there using guy wires.

I bent it down, so turnbuckles are appropriate, any other directions, then I guess we need more support.

This was what I did -- it is not healing too well. As it as pulled down, the two halves of the trunk were pushed further away. But this does not seem to affect the health of the tree. It is very healthy at the moment.

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Please post the results.

[kcpoole]

the method to use depends largely on how much movement you want to achieve. What sort wrapping are you going to use
Do you have a plan of what you want to achieve?
Have you done large bends in pines?

These can be used to get lots of movement in larger size trunks and Branches
Drill
Trench
Split

These for less movement and or gradual increments over time
Rebar and wedges.
Turnbuckles
Bending Jigs
Lots of wire

Ken

[eliass]

In the black pine I am pulling the top which is curved into a c to the left... In the red pine and cedar I want to introduce significant turns as the trunk is very boring all trees will be developed as bunjin in the past I have used raffia, wire and manual force.. This however has not introduced enough movement... I was planning on using the method I have seen on Bjorvalas video blog using steel rods, jacks, prices of wood and guy wire to introduce movement .

[Josh]

If you haven't bent anything before that's largish, have a look at Leongs videos from bonsai south. He shows some really good techniques with bending big to huge trunks and branches. In this video http://www.bonsaisouth.com.au/bonsai/in ... deos?id=83
He had the same problem as daiviet_nguyen mentioned of the trunk splitting. He has several videos bending trunks with good detail of what he has done. It will depend where you plan on bending to what tools and method you will need. Compressing the trunks down could be done with turnbukles, but bending up further will require something different. Hope this helps. Take lots of photos showing what you do in each step and keep us posted

Josh

[eliass]

Quick update first bend achieved in the red pine... Am considering doing the second one today not sure yet..

[eliass]