There was a post on Swindon and District Bonsai’s site this morning showcasing the evergreen trees on display at Shohin UK yesterday and, while these were undoubtedly superb  (the word “sublime” was used in relation to at least one of them in my hearing yesterday), I have to admit it has got me thinking. Yes, I know – that’s a rare and unusual phenomenon and may have something to do with this week’s eclipse. But rattling around inside my generally empty cranium is the question of what will it take for a deciduous tree to win a major award at a show?  I am of course excluding those shows such as Swindon Winter Image that have separate categories for Best Coniferous and Best Deciduous.

Now can I say straight out that this is not a criticism – bonsai exhibitions are meritocracies (or at least they should be) so it should always

Do you guys remember the tool from this post?
Well, I got some advice as to how to get rid of the rust on it from a reddit reader (/u/TotaLibertarian) using an uncommon (and when I say that I mean totally common) substance.
It is suffice to say that my curiosity was piqued.
I did some investerating and research.
I combed over blogs and forums.
I wiki’d and googled until my eyes were crossed.

Then I experimented. First I sanded all the rust….



…. Both off the knife and also on a pair of root cutters.



Knife above, cutters below.

The rust on the cutters wasn’t too bad, it just kept coming back no matter how much I oiled it.



Next, the chemical….



After making a salad (with a little oil, salt and pepper) I put the two tools into a…