So.. I am pushing myself again after being told off for not keeping my trees in the best state they can be. Thinned the foliage on two junipers, and started removing alld needles. What an ff-ing job. Anybody have any tips on how to do this efficiently? I would rather wire & shape then spend the rest of the week pulling individual needles..

I am also very interested in this topic.
Is pinching slower than shears? It's a real question, I don't know.
But...
I guess so, as with shears you have to cut exactly at the right place, as with the pinch method you just... pinch and it breaks in the "right" place.

From "Peter Tea Bonsai":

"First off, I removed any brown needles, it’s straight forward.  
I normally use a combination of my hands and tweezers to remove the loose brown and yellow needles.  They should just come right off when touched.  
Old juniper foliage will brown out and fall off ever year on the interior of the branches so it’s perfectly normal to see that happening.  Think of old needles falling a pine tree.  If the tips of the foliage are browning out, then there’s a problem.
I would either lightly pull (pinch) or cut off the foliage at the base of the branch. I would continue doing this on the rest of the tree.
But! If I wanted to make the branch shorter, I would leave the green at the base and cut the terminal end off."

if there is an easier way id love to know. i cursed at one of my junipers so much this weekend while i was cleaning it up that i choose not to do the rest cause the old needles sucked!

If you don't like removing old needles, don't get a squamata. I know, I do have one.
I do it exactly as Clicio described - I use my hands and tweezers. Once the needles are really dried out, I can rub them off fairly easily using my fingers. The tweezers I often do not use the way I am supposed to - I use the flat end to scrape off the needles (carefully, not to damage the bark). It does take time and patience so I need to be in the right mood to do it.

Auk wrote: If you don't like removing old needles, don't get a squamata. I know, I do have one.

Thanks, Auk.
A Squamata, juniperus horizontalis, is the only juniper that survived my inexperience.
Which means hard prickly needles. Every time I work on it, I get sore hands.

Clicio wrote:
A Squamata, juniperus horizontalis, is the only juniper that survived my inexperience.
Which means hard prickly needles. Every time I work on it, I get sore hands.

If I am right, a horizontalis is a communis, not a squamata and yeah... They are pricklish (I have one)

Auk wrote: If I am right, a horizontalis is a communis, not a squamata and yeah... They are pricklish (I have one)

You are right, they are called horizontalis but are known here also as juniper prostata. (Not squamata, my bad).

Auk wrote: If you don't like removing old needles, don't get a squamata. I know, I do have one. .

Neither of those is sqamata nor communis.
One is ittoigawa. The other I am not sure. It is a species that mixes needles with scale.

If it does not come off by a gentle rub, I leave it on until it eventually will come off by hand