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All About Pottery Glazes

All high carbon steels will discolor and rust if proper care is not taken.
When not in use the tool should be kept clean and dry.
Even a simple wiping with a cloth will work.

Do not leave your tools soaking in water or slurry for long periods of time.

Do not use a power grinder to resharpen your tool.

Also the use of a file to sharpen a tool is not recommended.

Better results can be obtained by using a whetstone using oil or water and after a few strokes the edge should be back to normal sharpness.
Be careful.
Your tool will take a razor sharp edge and unless caution is exercised when working with a super sharp tool an accident may happen resulting in some nasty cuts.
Your tool loves to work hard!
If you give it a little attention it will reward you in return by giving you a long productive life of satisfactory service.

Banding Wheel - this sets on the table and piece of pottery is set on it and spun. The pottery worker loads a brush with paint and holds it in one spot on the spinning pot and gets a perfect painted band around the pot.


Bats - used to carry or work on thrown pottery.



Caliper for Lids - make one measurement and you have its opposite immediately, it's an easy to use accurate way to size lids for pots. You can also make a lid for an already fired pot, by reassemble the wing nut and screw in the 12-1/2% hole. This way your lid will shrink to fit the pot.


Calipers - transfers measurements from model to clay object, also measures thickness and diameters inside and out.


Cattails - a fine sponge attached to a stick for smoothing hard to get at areas on pottery and ceramics.


Clay Cutters - a eighteen inch long piece of wire with handles on each end used for slicing and cutting block clay or cutting a piece of pottery from the throwing head of a kick wheel.


Clay Fluting Tool - used to flute leather hard clay. One end gives a uniform flute along outside edge and the grooved end creates a rough or scalloped look on the pottery.


Clay Hammer - used to produce a textured or patterned design on clay slabs. Each hammer usually has a designs on each side of head.


Clay Lifting Tool - used to lift clay to make fish scales or feathers or any other kind of lifted design on pottery.


Cleaning Files - scotch brite attached to both sides of a flexible strip of plastic used to clean mold lines and imperfections from greenware


Cleaning Pad - a 3" x 3" scotch brite pad for smoothing mold lines and overall surface of greenware.


Cleanup and Carving Tool - used to remove clay off hard to reach areas on pottery.


Cutout Tools - used to cut through wet clay to make cutout designs and openings in slab clay and clay vessels.


Cutting Tools - for trimming on kickwheel, sculpting and hollowing work.


Double O Rib - used to cut, slice, shape and smooth soft clay.


Double Pointed Dowel - for beveling holes. Once you punch a hole through the clay with a cutter, use this tool to round the edges on the outside to give a soft edge.


Edger - used to refine or define rims, bottoms, and feet of thrown or hand built pottery and for accenting any edge or create decorative bands or handles.


Embossing Tool - has round smooth ball shaped ends used to replace lost detail, trace designs, sign piece or when painting makes uniform dots. It leaves a smooth line and there are six different sized ball tips with each handle.


Faceting Tools - used for removal of large amounts of clay and heavy duty carving.


Fettling Knife - used for trimming, carving and sculpting.


Finish Rubbers - used for smoothing , shaping and finishing pottery pieces.



Glaze Dipping Tongs - ten inch long tongs with four sharp gripping points that make minimal contact with the piece being dipped.


Handle Makers - a half inch loop with a handle that is drawn through a slab of clay forming a perfectly shaped coil that can be cut to length and attached to pottery as handles or left long and used to make a coil pot.


Hole Cleaner - a triangle shaped scotch brite that can be inserted into a hole and twisted around to smooth the interior of hole.


Hole Cutters - used to cut clean holes in wet thick walled greenware and wheel thrown pottery.


Hook Tools - very sharp and angled and come with various shaped heads, used for carving and turning clay or greenware.

Tips Definitions Clay Projects Pottery Gallery Pottery Tools Glazes All About Clay

Have you ever come up with a good idea while working with your handmade pottery or ceramics and thought that you would like to share it with others? You have? Well, why not send it to us and we will add it to the tips page for all to see.

Handmade pottery can be a very gratifying hobby that produces fun and satisfying results. For many people it's an enjoyable release that is created by working an inanimate mound of clay into a beautiful work of art that you made through your artistic abilities.

The best way of starting out is to take a few lessons. You will probably waste quite a bit in materials when you first get started. Figuring out how to truly make handmade pottery correctly and shape into what you want it to be can be quite an ordeal. The different tools that a normal shop will have can be fun to try. You will soon see which ones you like to use the most and then when you are ready you will know which ones to buy.

When you get all set up, just enjoy the hobby and have fun at it. Some people get pretty serious and start selling their creations at craft fairs and small stores, but others just like to create items for themselves, relatives, and friends. Whichever kind of handmade pottery you desire to endeavor, enjoy the hobby and have fun doing it.