Reviews on Stone Lantern Bonsai Tool Set?

BigAbs321

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Paradox

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Hello I was looking to buy my first tool set for bonsai and wanted to know if anyone has experience with Stone Lantern, in particular this tool set:

https://stonelantern.com/collection.../beginners-7-piece-bonsai-aesthetics-tool-set

It appears to have all the basic tools at a pretty reasonable price. Please let me know if any of you have reviews! Thanks!

Do yourself a favor, instead of buying a cheap "beginner set" that you will most likely have to replace in a couple of years because they are cheap and not well made, start with buying a tool or two of decent quality and add to that when you need to. There are some tools that you dont need "bonsai tools" per se and can substitute some regular tools for.


A first must have for a beginner IMO is a concave branch cutter
This is a good brand at a decent price: https://www.superflybonsai.com/collections/concave-cutters/products/kiku-classic-8-concave-cutter
Kiku is a good quality brand. It isn't top of the line like Kanishin or Masakumi but they are better quality than the set you posted.

The second must have is a wire cutter for when you cant unwind the wire off the tree. This tool allows you to cut it with minimal to no damage to the branch

And this tool mainly for the spade end to help get trees out of pots: https://www.superflybonsai.com/collections/repotting-supplies/products/10-rake-with-spade-ss
However I found a curved hook thing in our garage that is something like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Roberts-Vinyl-Flooring-Knife-with-Curved-Blade-10-931/100146673 that I find to be really good at getting root bound trees out of pots so I commandeered it to my bonsai tools

You can use inexpensive garden shears for trimming fine branches, candle cutting, Etc
I use these a lot: https://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-Soft...iskars+garden+scissors&qid=1611465522&sr=8-11 and get them at Home Depot or Lowes : https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fiskars...nless-Steel-Micro-Tip-Pruner-399242/307818019

The angled bonsai pliers help with tightening the wire when you wire trees into pots but regular pliers do work almost as good

You can add more tools as you can afford them. I have done this, added a tool or two a year to expand my tool collection until I had most things covered.
I eventually replaced the Friskars scissors with more traditional bonsai scissors but I still do use the Friskars some times.

I use needle nose pliers for a lot of stuff too.

You'll be much happier buying good quality tools the first time and not having to replace them within a few years because what you bought was crap.
 

Warlock

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Hello I was looking to buy my first tool set for bonsai and wanted to know if anyone has experience with Stone Lantern, in particular this tool set:

https://stonelantern.com/collection.../beginners-7-piece-bonsai-aesthetics-tool-set

It appears to have all the basic tools at a pretty reasonable price. Please let me know if any of you have reviews! Thanks!
I was looking for a first set of tools also. I got this cheap set yesterday. It gives me the basic tools I wanted to use like the concave, wire and knob cutters plus root rake and hook.
For the price I get to try out several tools in one set. Not sure why so many scissors are made yet.. 😆 These are not long term tools by all means but I'm ready to go outside and work on a few trees today.
 

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Carol 83

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I was looking for a first set of tools also. I got this cheap set yesterday. It gives me the basic tools I wanted to use like the concave, wire and knob cutters plus root rake and hook.
For the price I get to try out several tools in one set. Not sure why so many scissors are made yet.. 😆 These are not long term tools by all means but I'm ready to go outside and work on a few trees today.
My sister got me the same set for Christmas...I guess you get what you pay for. I also got a pair of the Kiku Silver shears from Superfly from my brother (I told him which ones) for the same price. I like them a lot and will probably use them a lot more than anything in the set. But she was trying to do a good thing.
 

BigAbs321

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Ahh, well it looks like Kiku seems like a good brand. I might start off with buying a few tools from them. Thanks everyone!
 
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I'll go on record and say I purchased the absolute best tools I could with the money I had and I have zero regrets. If you truly believe that this is a hobby you will stick with over the years then there is no reason to skimp on the outset.

...of course then again, a couple hundred bucks would get you a great set of starting trees that you could arguably work and learn on without using any bonsai-centric tools whatsoever.

Apologies for being no help at all.
 
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