We tend to think of large cuts as being structural, and small ones as being maintenance. This is an example where small cuts are structural. 

Though the example here is a dwarf flowering quince ‘Chojubai’, how to sculpt your bonsai with scissors may be applied to other deciduous trees.

A Chojubai with shoots that grew over the summer following a June trim.

If you cut here, the future shoot will grow in the direction indicated by the red lines. The buds on Chinese Elm and Chojubai are small. If you have trouble seeing tiny buds, consider magnifying glasses and a movable light. 

If this second bud is chosen, the shoot will grow this way.

A third bud, a third direction. In each option we have a choice of direction. If we choose poorly, the future shoot will grow into the tree and we’ll end up with a tangle.

It is possible to cut to desired shoot length without paying attention to buds, especially if you’re busy and have a lot of plants to get through. But you may end up spending more time in the long run.

Shoots that grow to the inside of the bonsai design will need removal or cutting again to redirect them. Haphazard pruning of deciduous trees not only sets up more work but it wastes earlier work. 

But—there’s always a caveat—scissors-only work is slow work, as we need to look at each bud direction to determine future shoot direction. 

This specimen has had directional pruning for 15 years, with most cuts around 1/2”. Notice how the branches all flow outward. At the micro level they have idiosyncratic movement, which is hard to replicate with wire. But if the shoots had been cut randomly, without attention to bud direction (and hence future shoot direction), this Chojubai would be a snarl of branches with no organization.

Training this way does take a few seconds more per cut to identify and plan future shoot direction, but you may find it has a big dividend in the shape of the branches and the bonsai. 

Note: For this example, I recommend cleaning up all dead leaves from branches and from the soil before winter storage. Dead leaves enhance growth of funguses like Botrytis, which is a benign fungus for most plants but can cause twig dieback on Quince.