Taking Care of Your Pottery Tools
Pottery tools are cheap, which is why nobody looks after them, and which is also why everybody owns three needle tools and cannot find any of them. Here is what actually destroys each kind of tool, the two minutes at the end of a session that prevent most of it, and the etiquette of shared tools.
Rinse everything before it dries, dry the steel, and do not leave tools in a bucket of water. That is nearly all of it. Wood splits, steel rusts, sponges rot, and wire snaps without warning.
Water is the problem, in both directions
Clay left on a tool dries into something that has to be scraped, and scraping is what wrecks a wooden edge. So you rinse.
But water left sitting on a tool is what rusts the steel and splits the wood. So you dry.
Rinse, then dry, both within a minute of finishing. Everything else on this page is a detail hanging off that.
The routine
- Rinse before anything dries. While you are still at the sink cleaning up, not tomorrow.
- Wipe the steel dry. A cloth, ten seconds. This is the step that decides whether your tools rust.
- Squeeze and rinse sponges properly, then leave them somewhere they can dry out rather than in a sealed box.
- Never leave tools soaking. A bucket of water overnight is worse for them than a day of clay.
- Lay them out rather than piling them in a tub. A roll, a tray, or a jar with the handles down.
- Check the wire on your cutting tool as you put it away. They fray, then snap, usually mid-cut.
- Put other people's tools back where they came from. Clean.
Three things that ruin tools
The bucket of water
Tools left to soak overnight. Steel rusts, wood swells and then splits as it dries, and glued handles let go. It feels like you are cleaning them and it is the fastest way to destroy them.
Scraping dried clay off wood
Dried clay has to be attacked, and attacking a wooden rib takes the edge off it. The edge is the entire tool. Rinse it while it is wet and there is nothing to scrape.
The communal tub
Twenty tools loose in one container. Needle tools bury themselves point up, ribs get chipped, and finding anything requires putting your hand in among the sharp things.
The two minute routine
There is no weekly tool session, no oiling schedule and no kit to buy. There is what you do in the two minutes after you stop working.
- Rinse everything while the clay is still wet. Clay comes off wet tools with a thumb. Off dry tools it needs a blade, and the blade takes material with it.
- Rinse in a settling bucket, not straight down the drain. Clay sets in a trap exactly the way it sets in a mold.
- Dry the metal ones by hand. Trimming tools, needle tools, ribbon tools, knives. Ten seconds with a cloth is the difference between a tool that lasts a decade and one that is pitted by spring.
- Shake the water off wood and stand it up to dry rather than leaving it flat in a puddle.
- Squeeze sponges out properly. A wet sponge sealed in a box grows things and starts to smell within days.
- Look at each tool as you put it away. This is where you notice the frayed wire, the loosening handle and the chip in a rib, rather than discovering them mid-pull next week.
Why this is worth doing on cheap tools
Not to save money. A needle tool costs less than a coffee. It is that a tool which fails halfway through a pot costs you the pot, and that hunting for a usable rib in a tub of clay-welded ones is how ten minutes of studio time disappears every session.
What kills each kind of tool
Different materials fail in different ways, and knowing which is which tells you what to do at the sink.
Wooden ribs and modeling tools
Killed by soaking and by scraping. Water swells the grain and it splits as it dries out. Scraping dried clay rounds the edge, and a rounded rib compresses nothing. Rinse wet, dry standing up, and never leave them in a bucket.
Steel trimming and ribbon tools
Killed by rust. Clay holds water against the metal, so a tool put away damp is a tool corroding overnight. Rust also blunts an edge that you cannot easily sharpen back.
Needle tools
Killed by the bucket, and mildly dangerous in it. The needle rusts, the handle loosens, and a rusted needle drags through clay instead of slicing it. They are also the thing you find with a fingertip.
Rubber and silicone ribs
Very durable, and destroyed instantly by a nick. One cut in the working edge and every stroke leaves a line. Keep them away from needle tools and knives, which is an argument against the communal tub.
Sponges
Killed by being stored wet. They break down, smell, and start leaving grit on your pots. Genuinely disposable, and cheap enough to replace before they get bad.
Cutting wires
They fray from use, and then they snap. A snapped wire mid-cut through a fresh pot is the most annoying failure on this list. Look along the wire occasionally and replace it before it goes.
Plaster bats and wedging surfaces
Killed by metal. Scraping plaster with a metal rib takes plaster with the clay, and a plaster chip in a pot pops a crater out of the wall in the kiln. Wood, plastic or hands only.
Brushes
Killed by being left standing in water on their bristles. The ferrule loosens and the shape goes permanently. Rinse, reshape the tip, and lay them flat.
Rust, and what to do about it
- Prevention is one cloth. Dry the metal before it goes away. There is no second method that works as well as this one.
- Light surface rust comes off with fine steel wool or a scouring pad, and the tool is fine afterward. Catch it early and it is a two minute job.
- Pitting does not come off. Once rust has eaten into the edge, the tool drags rather than cuts, and no amount of cleaning restores it.
- A wipe of oil helps for long storage, and matters more for tools you use rarely than for the ones in weekly use. Any light oil works.
- Stainless is worth paying for on trimming tools, which is the one place the upgrade is obviously worth it, because those are the tools that live in wet clay.
- A rusted needle is a replacement, not a repair. They cost almost nothing and a rough needle tears the clay it is supposed to cut.
Storage, and losing things
Most tool loss is not theft. It is a tool put down on a wet bench, covered by a rag, and thrown out with the rag.
- A roll or a tray beats a tub. Anything that keeps tools separate and visible. In a tub, ribs get nicked, needles hide, and you buy a fourth needle tool.
- Handles down in a jar works well for anything with a working end you want to protect, and it keeps needles pointing somewhere safe.
- Keep sharp things apart from rubber things. One knife loose among your ribs will eventually ruin one.
- Label what is yours. Tape and a marker. Studio tools and personal tools look identical after one session, and nobody takes anything deliberately.
- Do a sweep before you leave. Under the rag, in the slop bucket, on the ware cart, in the sink. That is where they all are.
- Own fewer, better tools. Most potters use four or five things constantly and own thirty. A small kit you look after beats a large one you cannot find.
When to stop repairing and replace
These are not heirlooms. Sentiment about a two dollar tool costs more than the tool does.
A frayed cutting wire
Replace it now rather than after it snaps through a pot. Wire is sold by the reel and takes a minute to fit.
A rib with a nick in the edge
Every stroke leaves a line. A wooden one can sometimes be sanded back; a rubber one cannot. Retire it to rough work.
A pitted trimming tool
It drags rather than cuts and it tears the surface. Once rust has eaten the edge, it is finished.
A sponge that smells
It is depositing what it smells of onto your pots. Bin it.
A loose handle
Often fixable with glue and worth trying. If it loosens again, the tool is telling you something.
A plaster bat with a chipped edge
Retire it entirely. This is the one where continuing to use it puts plaster into somebody's clay, and that damage shows up weeks later in a kiln.
The ones that come up at the tables
Can I leave my tools soaking overnight?
It is the single worst thing you can do to them. Steel rusts, wood swells and splits as it dries, and glued handles let go. Rinse while the clay is wet and dry them instead.
How do I get dried clay off a wooden rib?
Soak it briefly and push it off with a fingernail or a piece of plastic, never a blade. Scraping rounds the edge, and the edge is the whole tool. The real answer is rinsing before it dries.
Can I save a rusty trimming tool?
Light surface rust comes off with fine steel wool and the tool is fine. Once rust has pitted the cutting edge, it drags instead of cutting and it is finished. Replace it.
Should I oil my tools?
For long storage, a light wipe of oil on steel helps. For tools in weekly use, drying them properly matters far more and oil is mostly unnecessary.
Why does my rib leave a line on every pot?
There is a nick in the working edge. On a wooden rib you can sometimes sand it back; on a rubber one you cannot. It usually happened in a tub alongside something sharp.
Where do all my needle tools go?
Under a rag on the bench, in the slop bucket, or at the bottom of a communal tub. A sweep of those three places before you leave finds most of them, and storing tools handles-down in a jar prevents most of it.
Why can I not use a metal rib on plaster?
Because it takes plaster along with the clay, and a fragment of plaster in a pot absorbs moisture, expands and blows a crater out of the wall in the kiln. Wood, plastic or hands on plaster, always.
Is it worth buying expensive tools?
Mostly no, with one exception. Stainless trimming tools are worth the upgrade because they live in wet clay and rust is what kills them. Everything else, buy cheap, look after it, and own fewer things.
Where to go next
Reclaiming your clay
More on plaster, and why a chipped bat is the one contamination you cannot undo.
Read it →The risks every potter should know
Needle tools in a bucket are on that list, along with everything else worth knowing.
Read it →To apron or not to apron
The other studio-habits page, and considerably less serious than this one.
Read it →Clay Hole University
Every lesson and guide in one place, from first day at the wheel through firing and glaze chemistry.
Start there →Two minutes, not a hobby
There is a version of this subject where people oil their tools on Sundays and keep them in a fitted case. That is a different hobby, and it is not necessary.
What is necessary is rinsing while the clay is still wet and drying the metal before it goes away. Two minutes at the sink, at the end of a session you were finishing anyway. Do that and a cheap set of tools stays sharp for years, and you stop owning four needle tools and finding none of them.
Rinse wet, dry the steel, never leave anything soaking, keep sharp things away from rubber ones, and put shared tools back clean.
If you want the breakdown by material and when to replace rather than repair, switch to the Comprehensive Version at the top of the page.