Sharpening?

[yenling83]

Is there anyone out there with a solid reputation who sharpens bonsai tools? I can sharpen my scissors, but would rather pay a professional to do the others.

Thanks

 

[capnk]

Where are you located?

 

[yenling83]

Central Coast of CA

 

[Eric Schrader]

I'd look for a knife sharpener. When I was a kid my mom owned a restaurant and a guy came by in a truck once a month to sharpen knives. We lived in rural Mendocino county so you could probably find someone local, or who comes through from time to time. Anyone who has experience with sharpening should be able to do bonsai tools - the shape of the blades may be different but once you know how to sharpen a piece of steel you should be able to do anything with only a few extra small stones.

I will say that if the sharpening service uses a high speed grinding wheel then you should look elsewhere, the heat from a high speed wheel can make the blade lose its strength...but I don't understand metallurgy well enough to tell you exactly why.

Or - look for a good woodworker - they know about keeping steel sharp.

 

[alonsou]

I recently purchase my profesional bonsai tool set and haven't had the necessity to shapen it yet, however I'm a woodworker too and I keep all the blades of my bench planes sharp by gluing to a big piece of granite a few sheets of wet/dry sandpaper (220,320,600,1200 & 2000) grit and some WD40 as lubricant. I guess something similar could be applied to bonsai tools.

 

[painter]

there are some good instructional video s on bonsai basho by peter warren.
check em out

 

[Bill S]

Try Tom Brown at North Star Bonsai - http://www.northstarbonsai.com/Home_Page.html - pretty sure he does it, and he's a bonsai guy.