How I clean my bonsai tools using every day household cleaners.

We are more than half way through our #lockdown2020 in South Africa and we have seen some amazing and innovative challenges coming to light. When you ask people to stay at home and give them access to the internet you bound to be entertained. It almost feels like social media giants were sitting around a campfire trying to figure out a way to get more people to be active social media users and they said maybe we should make a arrangement with goverment to lockdown cities and see what happens...

All jokes aside. I to came up with a #lockdownchallenge for myself. I set the challenge to myself to work on my bonsai collection of over 200 bonsai trees within the #21daysoflockdown . This all started out slow but I recently started to gain more traction. Although I have been posting mostly on how I work on trees I thought that I would be great to show you how I clean my bonsai tools. I think that this is just as important as maintaining your trees.

Here is a detailed video of how I clean my tools:

A quick run through of what was described in the video.

What you need to clean your bonsai tools:

1. Dish washing liquid
2. Luke warm water
3. Bowl for the water
4. Sunflower oil
5. Small bowl for the oil
   6.Micro fiber cloth
6. 4 x small cloths
7. Old tooth brush
8. Brush to apply oil

Once you gathered all the items you need you can fill the bowl with water and add the dish washing liquid. You can then use your old tooth brush to clean the blades of your tools. Please note that you should not dunk your tools into the water.

After you have washed your tools I would suggest you place them opened up on the micro fiber cloth. This will allow the excess water to be absorbed by the cloth. After that you can use one of your smaller cloths to dry off the tools individually. Make sure you get in between all the moving parts. If any water is left behind on the metal surface this will cause the metal to rust.

The next step will be to apply a light layer of oil to the blades. You can use another one of the smaller cloths you set aside for this project to wipe off the oil. I know it sounds counter productive applying oil just to wipe it off again. But you do not need all the oil to be no the blades. You just need a thin layer to prevent the build up of rust and to ensure that you blades glide smoothly over each other.

This is the simplest and fastest way to clean your tools. There are many other ways of cleaning your tools and there are specialist products sold that is made specifically for use on bonsai tools. This is purely an alternative that I use that has been working well for the last few years.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to leave your questions and comments in the section provided below.

#teambonsai
#bonsaicommunity

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