Bonsai wire

This purpose made Bonsai wire is fabricated from aluminum and comes with a copper colored anodized coating which make it very flexible and helps blend in with the color of your bonsai tree.

bonsai wire coils

What is Bonsai Wire For?


Bonsai wire is used to “train” your bonsai trees so that their branches or positioned and shaped exactly the way you want them.

Before the widespread use of wire training, bonsai enthusiasts would use stakes, rope, and raffia to bind and hold branches in specific positions.

Purists will still champion this method since wire can dig into branches and bark, but you will probably find the lessened hassle of wire to be worth the risk.

When to wire a bonsai

When you use bonsai wire to train and shape your bonsai plants, you will want to wait until branches are most flexible.

This occurs during the growth period of the plant, which is usually in the spring for most varieties.

Make sure you have the appropriate gauge wire before you begin, with thicker gauges used for larger branches and trunks.

How to wire a bonsai

Rather than bending a branch and then wrapping it with wire, you will want to apply your wire first and then shape the branch to your liking. This will give you more control over your shaping and hopefully help prevent breaking any branches completely. It is very important to take your time during this process since a single misstep could spell disaster for your plant and ruin your bonsai.

How Long Should Wire Stay On?


You should allow your branches to be trained for approximately three to twelve months but no longer than one year. Furthermore, it is crucial that you check your tree every few weeks to see if your wire is biting into the tree. Heavy growth will make this scenario more likely and if this does occur it may take years for the injuries to grow out.

Bonsai Training Wire

This purpose made bonsai wire is fabricated from aluminum and comes with a copper colored anodized coating which make it very flexible and helps blend in with the color of your tree.

The wire is purpose made for shaping and holding branches and small trunks as inconspicuously as possible. Aluminum is used because it’s software than copper wire and hence less likely to damage your tree.

Below is our full range selection of Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire, avaliable in 100 grams and 1 kilogram rolls.

Buy your bonsai Wire

Choosing Bonsai Wire Wiring is the primary way of shaping the trees that you plan to cultivate as Bonsai, which is why among the many questions you need to address when you start practicing this form of art is what type of Bonsai wire you should utilize. Learning as much about wiring as you can

Copper vs Aluminum Bonsai Training Wire

Wire is an important topic in bonsai techniques. At stores there is wire of many materials and of many prices and also of many origins and different countries made in. ¿copper o aluminium?

Copper was used before. But things are changing. Bonsai masters have always used annealed wire copper.

We have just started to use aluminum for some deciduous trees, but it is much more easy and cheap. I am clearly biased, but here are what I feel are the important considerations:

Annealed Copper

  • More expensive
  • Work hardens as it is applied, so it holds better than aluminum
  • Preferred for conifers
  • Cannot be reused unless reannealed

Anodized Aluminum

  • More economical.
  • Softer than copper, it has to be perhaps 1/3 larger in diameter than copper for a given purpose. The larger diameter has a larger “foot print”, or contact area, with the bark, so it will be slower to scar a delicate barked tree.
  • Many bonsaists prefer aluminum for deciduous trees.
  • Aluminum doesn’t work harden very much, so it can be reused.

The coils size

Tian bonsai tool make wire into conveniently sized coils that give a good balance between having a good amount of wire, but not so much as to be unwieldy.

And they make the smaller wires in smaller diameter coils that are easier to handle and are less likely to become tangled “bird nests”.

Japanese vs Chinese bonsai wire

Japanese wire is of excellent quality. But the Tian Bonsai aluminum wire, are annealed too and than other domestic wire, but I do not expect it to be any better than the Japanese wire.

Customers loved it! Both the quality (not all “annealed” wire is as soft as Tian; I have heard of unevenly annealed wire that has hard and soft spots) and the price, because my wire was less than half of the price of imported copper wire.

Storing Copper Wire

There are two considerations: convenience and protecting the wire from being deformed (and therefore hardened) before you use it.

You may have more elegant ideas, but I recommend storing and carrying your annealed wire in a cardboard box. A 12” x 12” x6” box will easily hold one coil of each size. If you are careful, that is all you will need.

For most people, however, the wire box gets jostled around and the heavy wires beat up the small wires, so you should separate the four smallest sizes from the larger wires.

You could use a separate box, or make a topless cardboard tray about 8 inches square by 1 1/2 inches high.

Put the small wires in the tray and carry the tray inside your wire box, on top of the heavier wire.

I use a more elaborate version. I made nesting trays – one tray for each wire size – so none of the wires get tangled with the others. The trays keep my wires separate and undeformed for maximum softness.

Why Anneal?

Annealing is a process of heating a metal so as to make it softer. The effect is particularly strong for copper, so annealed copper is much, much, much softer than unannealed copper.

Bending annealed copper wire causes it to work harden, which reverses the annealing. Annealed copper is soft when we apply it to our trees and it gets much harder as we do so.

This is sort of magical and is the main reason that copper wire is often superior to aluminum wire for bonsai: The wire is soft going on, but it gets harder in the process and thereby holds the branch or trunk as if it were a much larger wire! But (…and there’s always a ‘but’…), we don’t want the wire to harden before it gets to the tree.

So to minimize ‘pre-wiring hardening’, users should (a) protect the wire from deformation in storage, travel, etc. – don’t let it get knocked around – and (b) minimize the hardening that occurs as a piece is straightened from the coil just before using.

This is nearly insignificant for very thin wires, but very important for heavy wires – they will be dramatically hardened if they are annealed in small diameter coils then straightened out for application.

So I make heavy wires into large diameter coils and fine wires into smaller diameter coils.

How to select perfect size of wire for wiring my bonsai

Buy bonsai wire

1 mm bonsai wire

1.0mm – 250g – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

The smallest selection of wire offered. Great for portability and mame or small bonsai twigs.


A bit too small in diameter to train branches that already have bark. Needs to be used in the green form of branch growth.

We offer our customers the most proven bonsai wire type. While sharing the same characteristics of aluminum in general, our line of Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire goes beyond the all advantages and is what we refer to “master” quality bonsai wire, the best of the best. Still soft, reusable, manageable, and safe, this bonsai wire has the closest resemblance to the natural color of a tree’s bark.

An exclusive chemical formulation that we specify and develop makes this wire’s color as close to natural live tree bark available in the bonsai market.

1,5 mm bonsai wire

1.5mm – 250g – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

This size is also good for tie downs or securing a branch to a bender or grafting agents.


Our unique color of the “plated” aluminum creates a rustic bronze/greenish color effect to the bonsai wire.

2 mm bonsai wire

2.0mm – 250g – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

This is usually the most popular gauge for wiring bonsai trees.

Conveniently provided in a small roll. Medium sized bonsai wire, made for tackling most branches for training bonsai trees.

3 mm bonsai wire

3.0mm – 250g – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

Conveniently provided in a small roll. Medium sized bonsai wire, made for tackling most branches for training bonsai trees.

This is very useful for wiring medium size branches.For a tougher anchoring system, double-up and use multiple layering. You can achieve the strength with two doubled-up 3mm wire. 85 foot roll, weighing 250 grams.

3,5 mm bonsai wire

At a diameter of 3.5mm, you start getting into the medium size and strength bonsai wire.

4 mm bonsai wire

4.0mm – 250g – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire.

Use to wire tough branches, often using two at a time.

This type of bonsai wire is considered to on the side of medium, to slightly medium-large in gauge.

  • 48 foot,
  • 250 gram coil.

With this diameter feel free to tackle tough branches that still have some flexibility in them. This is the last size we carry in 250 gram rolls.
Hardy wire for medium to large branches for bonsai exhibiting some flexibility.

1.0mm – 500 grs – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

Smallest of bonsai wire. Carried in our largest roll of 1 kilogram.
Made for the tiny jobs. Plenty of feet of wire for bonsai trees to last a long time.
Although other “anodized” colors do a fine job being a brownish copper color, this plated system actually changes color depending on angles, lighting, etc. However, it is still primarily that brownish copper color.

2.0mm – 1kg – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

Large package of wire suitable for many small to medium branch training.
As you look at the bonsai wire, your eyes are fooled because the color fools your vision with the background of the bark of the tree. Soon you don’t realize what’s wire and what’s bark.
The wire is smooth and safe, hardy yet pliable. Easy to use wire, and reusable.
380 feet of copper colored aluminum wire in a roll.

3.0mm – 1kg – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

Our most popular size wire, great for all bonsai training needs.
The 3mm bonsai wire is a great selection because it can tackle most bonsai training applications. Double up for extra strength if needed.
The wire handles small diameter branches, medium, and larger diameters as well. Can be used for tough tie downs, or bending. Take off once branch growth stalls in place.
170 feet of bonsai wire, rolled in a coil.

4.0mm – 1kg – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

A medium-sized bonsai wire. If you have any medium sized branches or training needed on a tough tree, please start with the 4.0mm size. Now available in 1 kilogram.
Medium sized diameter. Medium plated aluminum bonsai wire sized to tackle medium jobs and training.
It seems to blend with the tree’s greens, browns, tans, etc., and natural features from the leaves, branches and trunk that emit from the medley of beauty and coloration your bonsai exhibits.

95 foot roll.

5.0mm – 1kg – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

One of our strongest selections of bonsai wire. Not the strongest yet. We carry 6.0mm as the toughest wire, yet, the 5.0mm is still a great choice when needing some flexibility and ease.
Strong enough for most hard challenges, yet still manageable. It is the ultimate bonsai wire for long term quality training, especially when your bonsai is being displayed.
Large diameter wire for bonsai. Strong and tough, made for medium to large specimens.
Roll of 63 feet wire.

6.0mm – 1kg – Copper Plated Aluminum Bonsai Wire

The toughest bonsai wire available.
We offer this gauge for the serious bonsai hobbyist. The size is made for tough to tackle wood and a bit hard to manage, but still better than using the hardly-pliable copper bonsai wire alternative.
Penjing Iron Works’ strongest and largest available aluminum wire for bonsai. Use for the most extreme jobs.
42 foot aluminum roll, copper color.

1OOg Wire Set (1mm – 4mm)

Total of 400 grams of wire. Get all four bonsai wire sizes, offer in one convenient and affordable set.
Wire set consists of a variety of sizes to tackle all training jobs. Offered in 4 separate 100 gram rolls, totaling 400 grams.
Good for small to large trees. You can now handle small twigs and larger branches.
Wire set comes in 100 gram rolls of 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, and 4mm rolls (400g).

1kg Wire Set (1mm – 6mm)

Total of 6 Kilograms of wire. Awesome bulk amount of bonsai wire to last you through your dedicated training.
Great accessory to have in order to train all your trees. Branches upon branches will have wire, and it’s concealed enough to display.
Shipping cost may seem high, but keep in mind this is six kilo of awkwardly shaped product. Please realize we do not intend to profit from shipment, but rather keep it fair.
1kg gram rolls of 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, and 6mm totaling six kilos.

This purpose made Bonsai wire is fabricated from aluminum and comes with a colored anodized coating which make it very flexible and helps blend in with the color of your tree.

diametergrs.metersfoot
1 mm500775
1,5 mm500
2 mm 500
2,5 mm 500
3 mm 500
3,5 mm 50018m
4 mm 50012m
4,5 mm
5 mm 5009m
5,5 mm
6 mm 5006,2m

The wire is purpose made for shaping and holding branches and small trunks as inconspicuously as possible.

Aluminum is used because it’s software than copper wire and hence less likely to damage your tree.

You will get 500 grams of this wire in 4 mm, 5mm or 6mm diameter.

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