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The Clay Hole University · Firing and Fixing

Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by StagePrintable pottery guide

Cleaning up a pot on paper: which tool belongs at which stage of clay, four steps with a tick list each, six fixes for what goes wrong, and a log for every pot you clean up.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 24 printable pages
  • 5 video picks
  • 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 Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by Stage printable guide?

It is the free “Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by Stage” lesson rebuilt for paper: the whole rule in six moves, four steps with a tick list for each stage (wet and leather hard, bone dry, bisque and fired), the tool that belongs to each one, six ways it goes wrong and how to fix each, a note on what is different at The Clay Hole, and the one habit under all of it: wet, at every stage. Built to be printed, kept beside the bucket and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by Stage” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 24printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 5hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 12glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has ever reached for sandpaper on a dry pot

Every pot needs cleaning up somewhere.

A rough rim, a sharp foot, a burr on a handle join, a bump of glaze after the firing. Every pot needs a little work before it is finished, and the trouble is that the right tool changes with every stage the clay goes through. The wrong tool at the wrong stage is most of what goes wrong.

The guide gives you the order of things: a sponge and a chamois for wet clay, a rib and a scraper at leather hard, almost nothing at bone dry, a green pad and wet paper at bisque, a diamond pad after the firing. Under all of it is one rule. Wet, at every stage, over a bucket, with an N95 or better even when the work is wet, and safety glasses for fired glaze.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log to write in. The stage the pot was at, the tool you used and whether it made curls, slurry or dust. A few weeks of notes show you which stage you keep leaving the work for.

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 “Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by Stage” 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 6 of the “Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by Stage” printable guide: what you need, by stage, shown with the sample watermark
    What you need, by stageThe tools laid out one card each, from the sponge and chamois to the diamond pad, with the bucket that goes under all of them.
  • Page 13 of the “Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by Stage” printable guide: how it works here, shown with the sample watermark
    How it works hereThe guide is written for potters everywhere. This page is what is different at The Clay Hole: where the work happens, who brings what, and where the slurry goes.
  • Page 17 of the “Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by Stage” printable guide: every pot i cleaned up, and how, shown with the sample watermark
    Every pot I cleaned up, and howA log to write in: the stage the pot was at, the tool you used, whether you stayed wet the whole time and what you would change.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A bucket, a pad and a page of steps

Cleaning up a pot happens at a wet table with both hands busy. Paper suits that.

  • The stages where you can see them

    Each stage of clay has its own page with its own tick list, so you can find the stage your pot is at and read only what belongs to it.

  • A reason for every rule

    Each warning comes with its reason: why bone dry gets left alone, why a rib held upright digs, why bisque wants a fine grit and a diamond pad is too much for it.

  • A log for your own pots

    Columns for the stage, the tool, whether you stayed wet and what you would change. 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 rule is wet at every stage. The guide makes every step and every tool line agree with it, and gives the one dry job, sanding greenware, its own plain warning: outside, in an N95 or better.

  • A respirator even for wet work

    Wet sanding still puts fine dust in the air, so the guide says an N95 or better where it matters, and safety glasses for fired glaze, which is glass.

  • A rotary tool kept in its place

    The guide says plainly that a rotary tool is a home job, done outdoors with a face shield, and not something we do at our tables.

  • Tick lists you can tick

    Each of the four steps ends in a short tick list, set so you can mark it with a pencil at the bench and see what is left.

  • 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 “Scouring, Sanding and Grinding, Stage by Stage” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

The first time you sand a pot dry, it feels like the quickest way to a smooth foot. It is also the quickest way to put silica dust into your own lungs, and into everyone else’s.

If you are ever unsure whether a job can be done wet, come ask us. We would rather talk it through than have you breathe it.

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.

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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 reference, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Does it teach dry sanding?
No. It teaches wet, at every stage. Clay dust is silica, so the guide keeps the work wet, over a bucket, and says why. The one dry job is sanding greenware, which it tells you to avoid where you can and, when you cannot, to do outside in an N95 or better.
Do I need special tools?
Not many. A sponge, a chamois, a rib, a scraper and a knife cover the wet stages. Bisque needs a green scouring pad, wet sandpaper and a rubbing stone, and fired work needs a diamond pad and a file. The guide says which tool belongs to which stage and which ones to leave in the drawer.
Does it cover a grinder or a rotary tool?
It mentions one, and is plain about it. A rotary tool with a diamond bit is a home job, done outdoors with a face shield, not something we do at our tables. Everything else in the guide is by hand.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. The stages and the tools work in any studio or at home. Where a line is only ours, such as where the buckets go, the guide says so.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. It helps to have made 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 use it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is an ordinary PDF, so it opens on a computer, tablet or phone, and you can zoom in on any page. It is built to be printed, though, because a page beside the bucket does not lock its screen.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page reference 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.
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, at every stage

Rib at leather hard, nothing at bone dry, a pad and wet paper at bisque, diamond after the firing, and a bucket under all of it. The guide keeps every stage in front of you at the bench.

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The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms

Your copy is yours. The guide is not.

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.

What you may not do is distribute the guide to anyone else, whether you charge for it or not.

That means you may not share, forward, email, upload, post, publish, copy, reproduce, resell, sublicense, redistribute, or otherwise provide the guide, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. You may not place it in a shared drive, group chat, membership library, online community, file-sharing service, studio resource folder, classroom packet, employee handbook, course, workshop, or other shared collection. You may not make copies for students, members, employees, friends, classes, studios, schools, groups, or organizations.

You may not remove or obscure copyright notices, watermarks, attribution, or other ownership information, or sell, republish, or commercially exploit modified or derivative versions of the guide.

Purchasing the guide does not transfer ownership of its copyrighted text, photographs, illustrations, graphics, layouts, worksheets, or other original content. Those rights remain with The Clay Hole and their respective rights holders. Copyright law protects the expression contained in these guides, while ideas, methods, techniques, and processes may have different legal treatment.

If you would like to use one of our guides with a class, studio, school, team, or other group, contact The Clay Hole about permission or group licensing. Please do not make twenty copies and call it manifesting.

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.

By choosing to use the information in a guide, you accept responsibility for your own materials, equipment, workspace, safety decisions, testing, methods, and results. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Clay Hole and its owners, employees, contributors, and affiliates are not responsible for injury, illness, property damage, lost work, failed projects, kiln or equipment damage, financial loss, or other loss arising from or related to your use of, or reliance upon, the guide.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any right or liability that applicable law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

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If the file you receive is corrupted, inaccessible, materially different from what was described, or there is a genuine technical problem with delivery, please contact us. We would much rather fix the problem than leave you staring angrily at a PDF that refuses to PDF.

Terms version 2026-09-19b