Kaneshin Tools

[Miguelito's Blade]

I recently had occasion to buy a set of No. 38a Long Handled Trimming Scissors. I went directly to Kaneshin in Japan. Not only were they cheaper than some places in the U.S., but they arrived five days after I ordered them. The people are more than courteous and will bend over backward to make certain you get what you want. Other than the occasional Masakuni (for some of the things they make that nobody else does) I will be getting my tools direct from Kaneshin in Japan.

 

[berzerkules]

I ordered from them not long ago and was impressed with their customer service. I choose the wrong shipping and I got an email the next day letting me know it might take 2 months. I asked to switch to faster shipping and what I owed, they waved the shipping because I bought like 5 items. Everything delivered to Alaska in less than a week.

 

[Clicio]

I have never been disappointed with Kaneshin. I have purchased goods directly at the factory/shop in Seki, and by mail. Always fast, always courteous.
And the tools are great.

 

[Canada Bonsai]

I recently had occasion to buy a set of No. 38a Long Handled Trimming Scissors. I went directly to Kaneshin in Japan. Not only were they cheaper than some places in the U.S., but they arrived five days after I ordered them. The people are more than courteous and will bend over backward to make certain you get what you want. Other than the occasional Masakuni (for some of the things they make that nobody else does) I will be getting my tools direct from Kaneshin in Japan.

Kaneshin is fantastic, and Nishimura-san is really great at customer service, a real pro.

I will say something in defence of North American retailers though or, rather, I at least want to describe how I view the situation :

When I opened Canada Bonsai people often messaged me to ask what I recommended as a good bang-for-your-buck tool. I decided to sell Kaneshin tools because they are a tool that I believe in and use myself. My price (in CAD) includes shipping to anywhere across Canada, and that price is the same or lower than what it costs if you were to order directly from Kaneshin and pay international shipping + duties as a Canadian. My profit margin on the tools is negligible; I made the prices just high enough so that they barely cover my operating costs. For this reason I encourage people to order directly from Kaneshin and truly don't care if somebody buys from Kaneshin or me. By putting Kaneshin on my website more people are exposed to their tools. This is important because many people won't bother, or don't want to bother, with researching bonsai tools, and I understand them! There are so many brands and so much junk that comes up on amazon, for example, when you search for bonsai tools, it is hard to know where to begin. It is also helpful to Kaneshin when I place a $4000 order to serve the Canadian market, in terms of everything from cash flow and predicting manufacturing needs to reducing their load of emails and transactions that they need to manage, which are just a few reasons why Nishimura-san works with retailers like me of course

Duties and shipping are likely a different experience if you're buying from the USA, but when buying from Canada they can be a significant factor.

 

[sorce]

Mad respect @Canada Bonsai .

I would never buy anything else.

Sorce

 

[Clicio]

I have never been disappointed with Kaneshin. I have purchased goods directly at the factory/shop in Seki, and by mail. Always fast, always courteous.
And the tools are great.

Nishimura-san was incredibly helpful when I visited the shop in Japan, and spent a couple of hours with me, explaining the manufacturing process and the use of most of the tools. Many different scissors, pruners, tweezers and so on.
A truly unique experience.

 

[Pinenut]

I will always buy Kaneshin tools, not sure you can find a better quality tool regardless of price!

 

[ibakey]

Wow, my stash of Kaneshin tools just arrived and I’m super excited to use them for my summer pruning. They really do cut like a dream and I even bought the sharpening stone to maintain the blades.

 

[RoadManDenDron]

please could you link to the kaneshin website? or confirm if it's the 'multilingualcart' one

 

[Shogun610]

Ditto on Kaneshin tools. Very worth while investment

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

The Japanese websites we use often, but not always, list multiple brands and different tools to pick and choose from. Some only make certain tools.

Sometimes a tool for example, the Masakuni convex pruners, have infrequent production runs.. only producing these every couple years.

Kaneshin makes some nice tools. Like many hobbyists we have a mix of brands in our tool kits. Partially through inheritance, but also on purpose as we find certain brands make tools we prefer best.

For some tools, like tweezers, we get the highest quality cheapest tool that works… as we seen to wear the angled ones down and loose the straight ones!

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Clicio]

please could you link to the kaneshin website? or confirm if it's the 'multilingualcart' one

Yes, it is. If it's not all written in Japanese, that's the right one.
Curiously many Japanese websites seem they were made in the 90's...
If it works, why change it?