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The Clay Hole University · Firing and Fixing

Fixing Fused and Sharp PotteryPrintable pottery guide

Rescuing a pot on paper: which tool fixes which problem, the steps for each of eight fixes, the grit ladder, and a log for every pot you save.

$12.505 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 28 printable pages
  • 13-term glossary
  • 8-question quiz + answer key

Flip through the free sample
  • Instant download
  • Prints on any printer
  • The lesson stays free
The printable, at a glance

What is the Fixing Fused and Sharp Pottery printable guide?

It is the free “Fixing Fused and Sharp Pottery” lesson rebuilt for paper: five safety rules, three toolkits and the grit ladder, the ways potters grind, eight fixes step by step for a pot stuck to its cookie, a hardened drip, sharp edges, a rough or rocking foot, stuck kiln wash, a dull ground spot and two pots fused together, and how to tell when a pot is finished. Built to be printed, kept beside the bucket and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Fixing Fused and Sharp Pottery” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 28printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7QR codes, each on a short Clay Hole address
  • 13glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has just opened a kiln load to bad news

It happens to every potter.

Sooner or later a pot comes out of the glaze firing glued to its cookie, dripping glass past the foot, or sharp enough to open mail. Every potter who fires long enough has been there, and most of those pots can be saved.

The guide gives you the order of things: which tool fits which problem, the eight fixes one step at a time, and the one rule under all of them. Coarse to remove, fine to finish, and wet the whole way through, with glasses on. It is plain about the dust, too.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log to write in. What was wrong with the pot, the tool and the last grit you used, and whether it passed the palm test. A few weeks of notes show you which glaze keeps running.

Look inside

Real pages, for beside the bucket

These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark.

  • Page 3 of the “Fixing Fused and Sharp Pottery” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before any tool comes out: what you will learn, what you would need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 4 of the “Fixing Fused and Sharp Pottery” printable guide: five safety rules, shown with the sample watermark
    Five safety rulesWet beats dry, eyes first, slow and light, lock the pot down and know when to quit, each with the reason behind it.
  • Page 17 of the “Fixing Fused and Sharp Pottery” printable guide: when to let a pot go, shown with the sample watermark
    When to let a pot goThe honest page: which pots do not come back, and the second careers a pot can still have.
  • Page 21 of the “Fixing Fused and Sharp Pottery” printable guide: every pot i rescued, and how, shown with the sample watermark
    Every pot I rescued, and howA log to write in: what was wrong, the tool and the last grit, the palm test and whether the pot was saved or let go.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A bucket, a stone and a page of steps

Grinding a pot happens at a wet bench with both hands busy. Paper suits that.

  • The steps where you can see them

    Every fix is one step at a time on a page you can prop against the bucket, with the tools you need listed first.

  • A reason for every rule

    Each warning comes with its reason: why fired work is ground wet, why you tap the cookie and never the pot, why a thick fuse is ground and not tapped.

  • A log for your own pots

    Columns for what was wrong, the tool and the last grit, the palm test and the result. A few lines of notes beat a memory of what worked.

  • It does not mind a wet bench

    A page stays where you put it. It does not lock its screen, and you can wipe it down with the rest of the bench.

How this one is built

Rebuilt for paper, not printed from a web page

Every guide in the series is set from scratch for print. Here is what that meant for this one.

  • Read against the studio’s own rules

    We checked the lesson against The Clay Hole’s rules and our other lessons. Where the lesson was out of step, the guide now says what those pages say.

  • Wet, all the way through

    The lesson’s first rule is wet beats dry. The guide makes every step and every tool line agree with it, and says so plainly about the two dry power tools.

  • A real respirator standard

    Where the lesson said “a mask”, the guide says an N95 or better, and a half mask respirator with P100 filters for a real grinding session.

  • Plainer promises about food and epoxy

    A glaze you dab on yourself has no food rating, so the guide points to our Food Safe Lookup, and a repaired piece is for display, never for food or drink.

  • Steps that read as sentences

    Many of the lesson’s steps were cut in half by a bold lead. On paper they read as one sentence each.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a page moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Fixing Fused and Sharp Pottery” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Sooner or later you open the kiln and a pot is glued to its cookie, dripping glass past the foot, or sharp enough to open mail. Every potter who fires long enough has been there.

If you are not sure whether yours can be saved, come ask us. We would rather look at it with you than have you grind it dry.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
The series

Build a little pottery library

Every printable guide in The Clay Hole University series takes one free lesson and rebuilds it for paper, with workbook pages, a glossary and a quiz with a worked answer key. Each one keeps its number for good, so a guide you buy today is the same guide in the same place next year.

Put any five printable guides in your cart and the cheapest one is on us. Put in nine and the two cheapest are on us. It happens automatically at checkout, no code to remember.

See every printable guide

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
Sits next to

Three lessons that pick up where this one leaves off

Each one is free to read online, and the codes in the guide take you straight there.

Questions

Good to know

How is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is not going anywhere. The guide is that teaching rebuilt for paper: a learning dashboard at the front, a log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need a power tool?
No. Most of the fixes need only a stone, two sheets of wet/dry sandpaper and a bucket of water. The guide says which fixes call for more and which tools it would rather you skipped.
Is it safe to grind fired pottery?
Wet, with glasses on, and in an N95 or better, yes. Fired clay and glaze hold silica, so the guide keeps every step wet and says why. It is not a substitute for your studio’s rules or a tool maker’s instructions.
Will it tell me whether a repaired pot is food safe?
It tells you that grinding a foot changes nothing about food safety, that a glaze you dab on yourself has no food rating, and that an epoxy repair is for display only. For the glazes on our wall, it points you to our Food Safe Lookup.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. The fixes work in any studio or at home. Where a line is only ours, such as asking our team before a refire, the guide says so.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. It helps to have glazed and fired a few pieces first, and the glossary fills in the words.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is set for an ordinary home or office printer on regular US Letter paper, with nothing important near the edges, so normal printer margins cut nothing off.
Does it print in black and white?
Yes. The text, the tick boxes and the tables are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page summary and the pot log are the two worth having beside the bucket. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Will it save a pot that is cracked through?
No, and it says so. Grinding fixes surfaces, not structure. The guide has a page on which pots do not come back and what a pot can still become.
How does delivery work?
It is a digital download. The link arrives by email and on the order confirmation page right after checkout, so you can have it printed and beside the bench the same evening.
What happens if the guide is updated?
Every edition carries its version number on the last page. When we correct or improve one, the new edition replaces the old one in the shop, and we can send the updated link to anybody who already bought it.
Can I share it?
It is licensed for your own use. Print as many copies for yourself as you like, on as many of your own devices as you like. Please do not pass the file on, upload it or use it with a class or a group without asking us first.

Wet, slow and patient

Coarse to remove, fine to finish, glasses on, water the whole way. The guide keeps every fix in front of you at the bench.

Get the guide · $12.50

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Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the guide to your own devices, print copies for your own use, write all over them, spill clay water on them, replace a coffee-damaged copy, and generally use the heck out of what you bought.

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Pottery is wonderfully unpredictable. It also carries real risk.

We work hard to make The Clay Hole University accurate, useful, practical, and ridiculously thorough. But pottery is a hands-on craft involving countless variables that no written guide can completely control or anticipate.

Depending on what you are doing, ceramics may involve extreme heat, kilns, electricity, gas, flame, sharp tools, spinning machinery, heavy equipment, pressurized equipment, silica-containing dust, fumes, chemicals, raw materials, stains, oxides, glazes, combustible materials, hot surfaces, breakable objects, and other hazards capable of causing serious injury, illness, property damage, fire, or worse.

These guides are provided for general educational and informational purposes. They are not a substitute for hands-on training, competent supervision, your studio’s safety procedures, applicable laws or codes, Safety Data Sheets, or the instructions and warnings supplied by the manufacturers of your clay, glaze, chemicals, tools, kilns, equipment, protective gear, or other materials.

Studios, kilns, clay bodies, glazes, firing schedules, electrical systems, ventilation systems, equipment, environmental conditions, application thicknesses, material formulations, and individual techniques vary enormously. Something that works beautifully in one situation may fail spectacularly in another. That is part of pottery. Occasionally, it is a very expensive part of pottery.

You are responsible for determining whether any technique, material, combination, firing schedule, tool, or process described in a guide is appropriate and safe for your specific circumstances before using it.

Use appropriate protective equipment. Use adequate ventilation and dust control. Read manufacturer instructions and Safety Data Sheets. Follow your studio’s rules. Obtain qualified instruction when a process or piece of equipment requires it. Test materials and techniques before committing important work to them. If you do not understand how to perform something safely, do not proceed until you do.

Never assume that a ceramic surface, glaze, clay body, firing method, finished vessel, repair, decoration, or other result is food-safe, microwave-safe, dishwasher-safe, oven-safe, structurally sound, chemically stable, or suitable for any particular purpose solely because it appears in or is discussed in one of our guides. Verify suitability independently when it matters.

Ceramics also refuses to sign contracts promising beautiful results. Colors change. Glazes move. Kilns have opinions. Pots crack. Materials interact unexpectedly. Manufacturers reformulate products. Equipment behaves differently. The Clay Hole does not guarantee any particular aesthetic, functional, firing, glazing, structural, or other result.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b