New carving tools

I was reading a post on one of the bonsai forums and notice a new carving tool maker. Rudi Spanko from the Slovak Republic, as well as supplying me with 2 carving bits, has also sent a couple more for me to test

This is the tree I will be carving. Taxus baccata from nursery stock

Close up of the base and roots. I will start the carving next week and give the new tools a whirl.

Some of the live veins died on the top of the tree when it was repotted but I will use these in the design of the carving.

I initially used Rudi's tools to hollow out the trunk. This was done by punching 5 holes in various places up and down the trunk. Because the tools I ordered are 100-110mm, this was an easy task

Through lack of sleep with night shifts I gave up after a couple of hours as I was knackered and in danger of making a mistake.

A good night sleep and back at it again. I was rewarded with sunshine and temperature well into the 20's.                                                One of Rudi's tools in the Makita.

Rudi's tools removed the internal wood with ease. All four tools were used but the largest one(top picture on the right) was not used much. The tree was too small to really let it lose and as my previous carving bits are on the dull side, sharp tools take some getting used to.

I would certainly reccommend Rudi Spanko's new range of tools for block carving (roughing out) More delicate work should be done with smaller bits and I'm sure Rudi will extend his range over time.

5 hours work in total. Rudi Spanko can be emailed at....

rspanko@gmail.com

It's been a long time coming but I finally got round to styling this tree. Still a lot further to go with the backbudding but an experiment with other feeds didn't help the health of the tree. Mixing chemical feeds with organics seemed to set the tree back but once I moved back to 100 percent organic, things have improved.
 The tree has been plucked of all old growth and terminal shoots were pruned back. This helps with both wiring and back budding

Some smoothing was done with a sander on the deadwood

The whole tree wired and a couple of guy wires to add interest to the first branch and bend down the old apex or heavy branch

                                                  First styling complete. Summer 2013