You could go a while before you would need more than concave cutters and some shears. The two tools in the middle

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You could just get the concave cutters (second from right) and use a good garden shear, get some regular tweezers and a wire cutter/needle nose plyer from your dad's tool box.

MBT

Concave cutters. I've had the same pair for many years and it seems to be the one indispensable thing I need - everything else can be borrowed. Get a decent 8" pair from an online bonsai dealer (www.evergreengardenworks.com) because they don't sell them in regular stores, and you're all set.

Hi All,

Just thought the Australian viewers would be interested to know that I have geat 11 pce bonsai tools kits available on ebay, they have everything you need in them. But im sure you would be able to get them on the other ebay sites.

Cya Caghan

Just to start, a simple pair of Chinese scissors will do.

Sorry, no they won't - though other scissors will do very well. Concave cutters are just about mandatory for bonsai and really can't be duplicated by anything else and still have the trees look good. Scissors, rakes, wire cutters, wire, scoops, even knob cutters can be substituted by other things, but not those.

Actually Lucy I use Chinese scisors for much of my pruning work, quite successfully. Not on the older/thicker trees, granted,but as Flash is just starting, I think there's no need to buy anything more advanced/expensive.
As or other scissors, they usually aren't strong or fine-pointed enough for leaf cutting.

Hi Andy - I know what you mean, but if he has anything with branches more than 1/8" thick, he's going to wreck those scissors (which I have a set of) and then what'll he do? You can't assume he's just working with tiny stuff.

I think that that is a pretty safe assumption ;)

Thankfully you haven't been put off, then, Flash. Good on ya!

One thing I forgot to mention, if you get some of those Chinese scissors, get them from an Oriental grocer's if there's one near you. My first pair were from a bonsai nursery, cost 10 times as much and weren't any better.

As MrBrownThumb suggests above, if you're wiring, use pliers from a toolbox. Again, much cheaper. The other tools you can splash out on if you decide to stick at bonsai.

I have some scisors that I won for being the youngest member of a gardening class. I dont think that they are chinese but they are very sharp and precice and I think that they will be OK for a little while :)

Here are the tools I have plus a pair of chopsticks.

I would have to say the knob cutters are needed. I just started this hobbie and I would not have been able to get by with out the knob cutters.
From Left to Right, Shears from HomeDepot, $12. Wire cutters from Lowes, Ive had these for a long time, they are double hinged, they cut through anything with little effort, I think I paid around $15-$30 for them, you can go cheaper for the wire cutters, just make sure they come to a good point. Next are the Japanese concave knob cutters, they are small, but I do not have any big trees yet and paid $40 for them. Last are a small pair of Japanese scisors, They were around $15 and cut better than any regular pair of scisors.

This is my start, it took me about a month to buy them all and managed pruning a few trees with the Garden shears but could not cut down to the stump neatly. When I prune the roots, I use the garden shears (on the left) and they seem to work fine. I use the chopsticks (not in the picture) to comb the roots to clean them up on repotting.

My 2c says get a set of 4-5 tools starting out. My tools were $80-90. When your trees get big and your still in the hobbie, get more tools then.

From what I have read and the little experience that I have had, dont buy chinese tools, the steel is cheap and soft. They dull very fast.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tools I have

The link and picture above aren't working. I think you meant to post this link:

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Those scisors are almost identical to mine.