Considering how coarse this red stoneware is, it trims beautifully. The clay tears in a spiralling fashion, especially in the centre of the foot-well and the gritty texture makes for a very tactile vessel, to a degree where I’m considering to leave this bowl unglazed. It’ll be fired to cone ten, so the body will vitrify, the particles of clay, the platelets, fusing so much that water can no longer enter the body. I ditch my tungsten tools for gritty clay like this, does anyone else do that? I’ve had some opposing comments on YouTube about it. I’ve always been advised not to use tungsten carbide trimmers with very coarse clays, I even have one tool that has a tiny chip out of the blade, but I can’t be sure whether that occurred when trimming, or when I placed the tool back in the box and the metal collided with another tungsten blade. Either way, since then, trimming coarse clay means using the cheaper, steel tools, which I can achieve the same finish with, it just takes longer. I say this a lot, but purchasing expensive trimming tools won’t make you a better turner. I think it has more to do with your practical ability and skill, as a competent trimmer can use relatively blunt tools and achieve the same level of finish, it’s about how you use them. The main thing that’s affected is the time it takes to trim, as these steel tools carve through the clay slowly and impart more pressure on the vessel itself, meaning you could distort the shape of the pot if you’re pressing in too firmly. Yet, at the same time, tungsten tools come with similar difficulties. They tend to catch more, chatter, if you make a mistake and gouge too harshly the pot will be decimated and if you drop the trimmer on the floor, well, there’s a chance it’ll shatter. I like both, both have their uses and both remain strong implements in my trimming arsenal. #stoneware #satisfying #pottery #ceramics #handmade #potteryvideos