A solution to...correcting a reverse taper in bonsai...intentional scaring

[Cadillactaste]

Several techniques are mentioned...scaring to correct a reverse taper caught my eye though.

http://kuromatsubonsai.com/how-do-i-make-my-bonsai-trunk-thicker/

Intentional Scarring:
A Pine or Juniper trunk can also be thickened by using a knife to carve vertical lines through the bark down to the sap layer. This produces an injury which the tree heals, and this produces scar tissue, which thickens the trunk. The Juniper bonsai shown below had a reverse taper at mid trunk which was cured in this manner. This tree required only a single scarring, which was repeated once in a two year period, to cure the reverse taper. You can thicken a trunk at the base by carving three or four scars around the circumference of the trunk and letting them heal.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Similarly...
http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?4389-Shimpaku-Project

 

[jkd2572]

Just don't beat with a hammer, which I have read in a few articles. I have yet to see realistic old bark just trees that look like they have been beat with a hammer. If anyone has pics to contradict please show them. Brian's progression is the best idea I have seen.

 

[Poink88]

I've tried both the slicing cuts (JBP and KHB) and stabbing (KHB and boxwood) for more than a year now...both works in my experience. I haven't tried the hammer treatment and don't think I will ever.

 

[MACH5]

Not a case of reverse taper here but I induced a flared base on the main tree of a Japanese maple forest by making a triangular cut at the back. It originally was almost the same thickness from top to bottom.

 

[michang05]

I've tried both the slicing cuts (JBP and KHB) and stabbing (KHB and boxwood) for more than a year now...both works in my experience. I haven't tried the hammer treatment and don't think I will ever.

do u have any pics of the JBP before and after creating cuts>?

 

[Soup Dragon]

Not a case of reverse taper here but I induced a flared base on the main tree of a Japanese maple forest by making a triangular cut at the back. It originally was almost the same thickness from top to bottom.

I know that this is going back in time somewhat, but can you explain the triangular cut? Did you split the trunk in such a way that there was a triangular opening that filled in, or did you simply cut a triangular wedge out of the trunk? If it is the latter, why would that induce a flare at the base?

Thanks!