Find your tool

How to choose pottery tools

Pick the kind of tool you need in the finder above, then a budget if you have one.

1. Not sure which kind? Start with the job: ribs, sponges and wire cutters for throwing, loop tools for trimming, slab tools and molds for handbuilding, detail tools for carving, and brushes and slip trailers for glazing.
2. Ribs: pick by material. Soft rubber and polymer ribs smooth and compress clay without marking it. Rigid plastic and wooden ribs shape walls and curves. Thin metal ribs scrape and refine, especially at leather-hard.
3. Trimming and carving. Loop and ribbon tools shave leather-hard clay. Harder, sharper edges, such as titanium-coated ones, cut cleaner and stay sharp longer.
4. Start with a kit, then upgrade. A basic set covers your first year. Then replace the tools you reach for most with better ones.

Just starting? The Xiem Potter’s Starter Tool Kit puts a needle tool, sponge, wire cutter, three ribs and two trimming tools in one set.