How to Choose The Perfect Branch Cutter

Hello gardeners! Today we will talk about different branch cutters and how to choose the one that is best for your gardening needs! Different branch cutters are needed for different tasks so it is very important you choose the one that is right for you!

We will be discussing different aspects of branch cutters such as:

  • Why you should have concave branch cutters
  • Why they’re important when you are doing bonsai
  • A guide to steel tools
  • Which ones to choose when you are shopping for concave cutters.

What Are Concave Cutters For?

Essentially, the main purpose of concave cutters is to cut heavy and thick branches. Shears help cut foliage and smaller, thinner branches. Concave cutters are great for main branches that are wide. Concave cutters are essential for making bug cuts on big branches.

The concave branch cutter helps you cut through large branches easily with its concave shape.

What Kind of Steel Cutters Work Best?

Concave cutters are made from different materials. The different materials can help you do different things. Each material is best suited for a certain task.

Usually, they are made in either Japan or China. The first one I have is made in China and is a carbon steel cutter. It is rather common; you can find it easily.

The great thing about them is that they are affordable for the everyday gardener. They go from about 20-25 dollars and will do exactly what you need. For such a quality product and an affordable price; you really can’t go wrong!

The concave cutter will be able to make a cut exactly where you want it, exactly where you need it.

Unfortunately, because the price point is a bit on the cheap side, the quality won’t be as good. They may be a bit stiff when you get them. But worry not! They will loosen up over time as you use it. So while the initial experience might not be as great; you will still have a good experience overall!

If you’re just starting out as a beginner gardener and you are looking for an affordable branch cutter that will get the job done; the China carbon steel cutter will be perfect! Unfortunately, they will rust if you leave them outside; so make sure you keep them indoors or keep them stored properly!

Now, you can get a concave branch cutter made of stainless steel by TIAN BONSAI for the same price as a carbon steel made in China. And the quality is better!

What Kind Of Tool Should You Purchase First?

so if you’re kind ofwhere or whether or not you’re going tokeep them you know maintain or keep theminside you might want to stay away fromsome of these carbon steel carbon steeltools and then so I’ve got my matingcarbon I mean I got my carbon steelI made a china tool right here and thenif you move up and you want to go tostainless you’ve got this one tooand what I’ve got here is a Riga concavebranch cutter that sort of has aspherical knob cutter you can see theshape right there it’s a littledifferent because you can sort ofaccomplish some things that knob cutterwould not exactly the things that an OPcould I could do but at least it givesyou a little bit more options because ofthat spherical shape right there thenice thing about a stainless steel toolis that they won’t rest so if you leavethem out you know if you’ve gotsprinklers going on and sometimes youknow you leave your tools out thesewon’t rust so you can leave them out inthe rain and they’ll work you know justas good as when you you know that theday before before rain now moving up soI’ve got my carbon steel in China mystainless steel men in China both goodtools if you’re just starting out theseare gonna be a little bit more expensivethan these guys but the you know I thinkthat if you’re not exactly sure whereyou go place them stainless steel isprobably the way to gothen we’re moving up to our main andJapan carbon steel tools okay so nowyou’ve got this I’ve got it I’ve got onethis is actually part of my tool kitthis is she say branch cutter and I’vegot two sizes here right here I’ve gotmy little one and then the gigantic oneand this is going to be the flush one aswell it’s not gonna be spherical thesetools I’ve been using these every singleday constantly and you can kind of hearit still got a good point right there Istill got a good point it still cutsperfectly flush you can see that it’sexactly lined up perfectly still

“What branch cutter Should you purchase next?

so Iuse these guys every day and the wear iskind of nice see I don’t leave I’ve leftthese out yes in the rain maybe once andif you use some oil you can’t get it offso it’s not the end of the world if youleave these out but you just gotta makesure you treat them right awayI probably left them out in the rain formaybe just an hour before I realizedthat it was raining and I brought themback in so she saved branch cutter thisguy and then when I have my hugebranches that I need to cut I’ll bringout this one this one right here andI’ll use this to cut branches that aremaybe about you know two two-and-a-halfinches in diameterabout two two-and-a-half inches indiameter and I’ll be able to cut throughit with this guy with no problems thenlastly I’ve got this new brand that I’mcarrying it’s the young omitsu tool andI’ve been just using this just for a fewdays and is this great tool you knowit’s this one probably are more used todoes she say one just because I’ve hadit for so long but this made in Japancarbon steel yogam it’s the tool is itfeels just as good it might end up youknow at some point you know it dependson how much you so I get out of this onebut this one should last forever but youknow so far I’ve been kind of using thisone a lot it’s got a really good pointit lines up really nice right there it’sreally flush and then you can tear it ifyou can hear that it’s very solidso the Yakama omitsu branch cutter I’vegot these available and these ones arevery good I’ve had I’ve actually enjoyedthese a lot so far so which one do youchoose I mean you’ve got all these toolsat least all these brands all thesemanufacturers and all these differentdifferent you know components and you’vegot these different materials which onesyou end up choosing well when you’refirst starting out you know the Maineand China carbon steel tools areactually really useful you can see thatit’s kind of stiff you know it loosensup over time but they still will cut thebranch with no problem I mean if youdrop them yeah they might you know ifyou drop them from a certain height theymight you know not withstand it but forthe most part they’re gonna do what youneed so if you’re on a budget the MaineCharlie carbon steel tools are actuallya pretty good bet and then from thereyou’ve got to sort of weigh you know interms of cost maybe you’re jumping upabout $40 from this guy from this guyright here is you’ve got to make a betwhether or not you’re gonna go stainlesssteel where you’re going to mate in showor you’re gonna choose made in Japanand that’s sort of that sort of whereyou got to make your decision if youknow you’re going to take care of yourtools I definitely go for the carbonsteel ones there they feel a lotstronger there are a lot more durable interms of power but in terms of waterresistance it’s going to be thestainless steel one then lastly you’vegot sizes so you got this one which is atypical eight inch I think this iseleven and a half so you’ve got sizes ofbranch cutters and I think that if youjust starting out with one you probablyonly need the eight-inch one you can usea different technique for cutting thebranch that you can for cutting biggerbranches with this one as long as youuse the correct technique you can stillcut big branches with this one just asyou would with this one so having thesmaller one doesn’t mean that you’relimited on some branches I mean if yougot a branch that’s going to be aboutthree or four inches thick in diameteryou might just want to just break out asaw and cut it with the saw but ifyou’ve got a smaller branch or somethingaround you know one to two then you candefinitely use the eighth inch everysingle tool no matter the manufacturereven if you’ve got a very high qualitybrand if you misuse your tool there’s ahigh likelihood that you’re going tobreak it and sometimes that doesn’t haveto do with the quality if I’m going inhere with the same I may in Japan carcarbon Steel’s were right here this yogimints a tool and I go and try to cut arock or something like that it’s goingto damage the tool you just knock it’sjust not going to do it it’s not made todo that so you’re in you’re going to endup damaging it’s go damage both the manJapan I’m still and the made in China carbon steel so make sure that you you know you have some expectations of your tools to not get carried away with it and try to cut things that you’re not supposed to another thing is

if you dropthem you know say you drop them fromreally high there’s a chance that youmight you know this might get mis aligned a little bit so you want to take care of your tools for the most part

they’re going to you know the differentquality levels on the tools are going toimpact the performance for what it’ssort of made for so if you’re made to isif it’s made of cut branches you knowthat the performance levels are going tosort of improve as you go up in qualityso when you start using these bring outmuch you say one here because it’s myfavorite

if you start using these youknow you when you make the cut on thebranch you can go this right here that’slike that’s sort of perfect you knowflat point right there well let you goflush with the branch exactly so you cancut it so you can’t see the branchat all you can go right up against itand sort of this angle that it is thatthis angle here will help you maneuverin through branches and get into thesort of exactly where the branch comesout from the trunk and you’ll be able tocut it with this easily okay so I justgrabbed this tree that I just repaired alittle bit but I want to demonstratequickly and what you can do with thebranch cutters I’ve got it right hereokay I’ve got a branch right here that’scoming off right here see this guy righthere we can do with the branch cutter sothis is how you use it is you can comeup flush on it like this then we get abetter angle you come up flush rightthere right up against itsee it and that’s sort of the shape thatsort of benefits you got that concavegotcha I mean cut flush with it and onceyou make that cut it’ll be flush rightthere yanking going with the knob cutterand make it a little bit smoother butwith that with the angle of this and theshape of this clunky branch cutter youcan make that cut really easily now forthis bigger branch you know I can breakout the briga tool so if you’ve got abeer garden conk a branch cutter you canuse this to cut that whole branch off inone shot if you don’t have this you canuse your branch cutter again the eightinch now of course you can use your mainkind of carbon steel use your stainlesssteel whichever one you want right nowfor this one I’m just go down the streetwith my favorite tool two sheets a carbon steel and you can do two cuts now this one you could probably do it in one cut you can see how it fits around the whole thing but if you’re not exactly sure you can do with two cuts you can do one try it can diagonal cut like there okay that cuts off the bottom part like this like that okay and then you do another one from the top and an ankleand you create this little V and you’vegot that in kind of a –

so basically youdo one cut which it takes off the bottomhalfand then you do the other cut off thetop which takes off the top and thenthat’s how you sort of cut a biggerbranch with just the smaller branchcutter now of course if you’ve got thebig one you can just go around the wholething like this right around the wholething like thatand make one cut just like that so ifyou’re shopping for a branch cutteryou’ve knows you know some things tolook out for you’ve got material you’vegot the sizing and you’ve got thecountry of origin it’s good to check on all three of those things especially the country of origin

The country of origin of bonsai tools

some of these brands are a little bit elusive when it comes to exactly where they’re made so that’s good to double check that all right soI’ve included the link to these branchcutters in the description below I’vegot links to all the different ones thecarbon steel ones the stainless steelones and all the different manufacturesif you’ve got any questions please feel or let me know in the comments belowotherwise thanks for reading.