Bonsai masters use two types of wires.
1) Anodized Aluminium wire
2) Anneal copper wire
Both the wires good for shaping Bonsai plants
Anodized Aluminium wire is Aluminium is heated up to some temperature, by heating wire becomes movable , soft to make moves around the branch.
Anneal copper wire heated to certain temperature and they cool it down to release stress inside the wire , otherwise copper wire will be brittle.
Now we will see how to select a wire.
Below link shows you before buying a aluminium or copper wire, how to text the wire is shown in detailed.
Take one end of the wire in to your hand and move around your finger , when you are doing it it should move freely around your finger just like a ring . it should not bend in 90 degrees angle. The smooth movement of wire around the branch makes the branch move any direction you want to give a style to the plant.
usually copper wire is used for wiring coniferous plants because, in coniferous plants the branch and leaf development is different from deciduous tropical plants. There in coniferous plants there are demonstrative and delicate bends for which copper wire is needed and also color matches with the trunk line of the coniferous plants. dont use any time naked copper wire , because when copper comes in contact with water oxide formation takes place and it there will be rusting on wire which can damage the trunk or branch of the plant.
One more wire is aluminium wire coated with copper or brown color is also available . it is inside aluminium and outer coating is brown color.
For most of the tropical plants like ficus we are using aluminium wire. Aluminium gives a nice bend to the ficus plants.
we can use any wire depending on availability in your area.
Below one more link of wiring will show in detail about wires and gauges. usually we use 1mm to 6 millimetre gauge wire for Bonsai. 1 to 2 mm is for thin young branches. for thick branches heavier gauge wire is used for drastic bending. it is difficult to measure at home the gauge of wire , So our great Bonsai masters given a the thumb rule is that when we are wiring one branch usually we take one third thickness of wire compared with that branch thickness, take the wire near the branch and see the thickness ,if wire thickness is one third we can use for bending the branch,
One more easy method is just take the wire near the branch which you want to wire it and push the branch with wire, if wire is bending its not a proper gauge, if the branch is moving away with wire that is perfect gauge for wiring that branch. Some times we have only thin wire , we need not worry, take double strands of that wire and wire around the branch it gives strength and we can bent the branch.
wiring should be always in 45 degrees angle. how wire a plant we see it in next blog .
now I will give one more link , it gives explains everything about wires.
