Deadwood work

defra

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Yesterday i was talking to @Tentakelaertje about some deadwood work and we exchanged some pictures then i came with the idea for this topic

Deadwood is a important thing in bonsai and to get it look realistic is harder that it seems as shown in some video's it looks so easy lol

I like to use this topic to show our deadwood work we did and share our experience tips and tricks or review tools/bits or ask questions wich are deadwood related

I think it would be realy great if we post a picture of our first deadwood work and the most recent to see the improvement and learn from eachothers trial and errors
 

defra

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My first deadwood attempt

This juniperus squamata already had a shari
I decided to jin a big branch and connect it to the existing shari

As you can see in picture 1 i didnt look good enough and cut trough a live vein

Lucky for me there is one at the back as well and nothing died off
I used a dremel tool with smal carving bits to detail work the wood and burned it with fire
Last picture is today

Screenshot_2016-07-21-20-14-41.png Screenshot_2016-08-27-18-02-44.png 20170625_102112.jpg
 

defra

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Seccond attempt
Larch
Jinned the trunk and wired a branch up as new trunk

I used a litttle rotary saw blade in my dremel to make the fine lines down the trunk on this one it worked realy well and very precise something ill try again next time
I didnt treat the deadwood yet cus id like to get nature do its thing for a year first
Also burned the wood afterwards

Last two pics is today

Screenshot_20170625-105819.png Screenshot_20170625-105833.png 20170625_101902.jpg 20170625_101902.jpg
 

defra

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This is my third attempt
Juniperus communis norwegian
Bought at a bonsai nursery

When home i found out there was already allot of deadwood on the trunk wich was rotted away all soft wood also a couple big roots

I started cleaning it up first i used a couple different wire brushes to do the the job all the soft rotten wood was brushed off

After that i went in with a carving bit bought from kaizen bonsai

With this as result

Before:

20170312_103329.jpg

After repot and deadwood work:

20170317_175718.jpg 20170317_175637.jpg 20170317_175657_001.jpg
 

defra

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This are my tools for doing deadwood work

20170625_172623.jpg
The wire brushes are bought via aliexpress and are realy cheap they work great to clean up rotten parts of wood

20170625_172641.jpg
This is a T1204 bit bought from graham potter at noelanders works great to carve big parts away

20170625_172653.jpg

This is a rotery saw blade i used this once to make detail lines down the trunk
works well and if you let the saw do the work without giving to much presure on the tool you can manoeuvre easily on the wood makeing nice curves and lines

Also you can make different depths in lines
Tbh i never seen a video of someone working deadwood useing this kind of sawblade
 

Smoke

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Tbh i never seen a video of someone working deadwood useing this kind of sawblade

There is probably a reason for that.


1401262057.jpg
 

defra

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If you use the tool right without giving to much pressure it will stay where you want it tbh with any carving bit you should be carefull!

This is all my experience in working with deadwood soon ill go and make a hollow trunk on my quince will post an update here when ready


Looking forward to see you bnuts carving skills!
 
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My first deadwood work was scraping bark off of branches and then carving them a sharp tip. Watering meant a huge risk of spearing a finger (or worse) back then. After that it became more sophisticated with real carving stuff and such, but I have no pics of that right now.

This is the level 3: 20170301_110824.jpgDremel work.

Level 4:
20170528_180001.jpg 20170528_204920.jpg
This was my grape a month or so ago, it is better now, but it is very wet outside, so I don't feel like making pics now.

It was fun talking deadwood Dennis!
 
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Getting rid of straight lines and such odd parallel stuff, going with the flow of the tree and the grain is the next step I feel.
Made the same day as the others, just 15 minutes later, but I forgot I had made it.

The two grape pics show really good comparison between rough carving and going with the flow and adding depth et cetera.
Taking pics and examining them from the phone was an eye opener. The lens flattens the picture, so straight lines jump out better.

20170528_204828.jpg
It was rough carved and then brushed with a steel wire brush to bring out the grain.
 
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Totally forgot about it, sorry!

20170716_190436.jpg
It better be ramifying a bit, leaves are way too huge and coarse...

Deadwood is nowhere near finished tho.
 

defra

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Used the dremel on this deadwood feature on my lill boxwood now ill let nature do the detailing

Before two sides :

Screenshot_20181005-194119.pngScreenshot_20181005-194340.png

After two sides
Screenshot_20181005-194655.jpgScreenshot_20181005-194724.jpg
 
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