AusBonsai

Is there any reason why i cannot use stainless steel wire to wire bonsai?

I was under the impression it's not used due to it being harder to bend the thicker wire? also more expensive in comparison where the colour of copper wire would be less noticeable at a guess.

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Steel wire gets too hot in the sun and can burn the bark. Ever picked up an iron bar when its been in the sun .

I have access to smaller guage ss wire for free. I will test the heat sink effect of both aluminum and ss and report further.

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I dont think SS will work well, the reason we use copper or aluminium wire is its 'workability', its easy to bend and form to the desired shape and then hold it. I think you will find SS will be harder to work, it will probably want to spring back when you try and coil it around a branch.

I think heat transfer would not be an issue, heat would dissipate immediately if it is constantly in contact with the bark. Damage to the bark when applying the wire is very likely. I spend lots of money on wire, both copper and aluminium and I would NEVER EVER attempt to use steel wire. It will be fine to tie mesh into pots or use as a guy wire but do not risk damaging your trees.

When I first moved to Darwin I used copper wire (as that's what I had). After some time I began to lose branches off of my trees. They would just die for no apparent reason. After some time I ran out of copper and got some aluminium (aluminum for Jerry) sent up to me. My branch lose stopped shortly after. I had a friend at the DPI check my trees out and he determined the copper had been heating to the point the sap in the branches had "boiled", thus killing the branch. I never used copper again, or steel for that matter, and my branch lose returned to levels I considered 'normal'. I still don't use any wire other than aluminium on any of my trees

Yeah I imagine stainless would just be difficult to use in such delicate situations. Curious to see your results though as I've never used anything different

Gerard wrote:I think heat transfer would not be an issue, heat would dissipate immediately if it is constantly in contact with the bark. Damage to the bark when applying the wire is very likely. I spend lots of money on wire, both copper and aluminium and I would NEVER EVER attempt to use steel wire. It will be fine to tie mesh into pots or use as a guy wire but do not risk damaging your trees.

Agree wholeheartedly.

Homer, by all means, if you like do a bit of "bonsai on the cheap" recycle, reuse reinvent. A 500g roll of Aluminuim bonsai wire will set you back all of $15, you can wire dozens of trees. What are your trees worth to you?

Cheers,
Mojo