Hendrix, Taylor J. on mon 10 may 04
Howdy y'all:
I spent some time today working on my tool chest. I have made some
trimming tools already with my strap steel. One is a loop tool that has
a gradual radius and corners--good for starting feet and even for
carving a well in the inside of bowls. The other is a failed kana-like
tool. The strapping is too thin and flexes when the tool is being used.
Mucho chattering and not the purdy kind.
I have been mulling over and over Mayor Mel's descriptions of the
trimming tools he and his fellow apprentices used in Uchida's workshop.
I am not sure I am visualizing it correctly, but reading through a book
awhile back on Japanese pottery tools, I came across pictures of bamboo
knives used for trimming feet. A flat piece of bamboo is trimmed with a
pointed blade (90 deg legs) right on the growth ring of the bamboo.
When a potter puts this inside the foot, one leg will trim horizontally
inside the foot and the other leg will trim vertically the inside wall
of the foot. Having the time, I broke off 6 inch lengths of strapping
and ground down one end to mimic the bamboo trimming knife I saw in the
book. Is this what Mayor Mel was referring to when he talked about
having his dozen trimming blades for a day of trimming? Is there even
more shaping of the trimming knife for specific foot cross sections?
Taylor
Waco, Texas, USA
http://www3.baylor.edu/~Taylor_Hendrix/tjpots.htm
Mike Martino on tue 11 may 04
Hey Taylor,
I don't know what type of kanna type tool you made, but if the steel is
flexing too much one thing to try is putting a lengthwise crease down the
center of the tool (kind of like doing the same with a sheet of paper to
make it rigid enough to hold ingredients for measurement). I have a little
mini anvil that I use. I just lay the handle of the tool lengthwise across
the edge of the anvil and give it a few whacks. Works pretty well depending
on the tool. Cathartic too...
Just out of curiosity, do you trim leather hard with sharp tools, or soft
with dull tools? I fall into the latter category and I find that having a
fairly rigid, dull tool works best. The guys here who trim leather hard with
sharp tools seem to prefer a fairly flexible handle, and apply a fair amount
of pressure (the handles bend noticably) into the clay when they trim.
Mike
in Taku, Japan
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On Behalf Of Hendrix, Taylor
J.
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 7:04 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Strap steel trimming tools
Howdy y'all:
I spent some time today working on my tool chest. I have made some
trimming tools already with my strap steel. One is a loop tool that has
a gradual radius and corners--good for starting feet and even for
carving a well in the inside of bowls. The other is a failed kana-like
tool. The strapping is too thin and flexes when the tool is being used.
Mucho chattering and not the purdy kind.
I have been mulling over and over Mayor Mel's descriptions of the
trimming tools he and his fellow apprentices used in Uchida's workshop.
I am not sure I am visualizing it correctly, but reading through a book
awhile back on Japanese pottery tools, I came across pictures of bamboo
knives used for trimming feet. A flat piece of bamboo is trimmed with a
pointed blade (90 deg legs) right on the growth ring of the bamboo.
When a potter puts this inside the foot, one leg will trim horizontally
inside the foot and the other leg will trim vertically the inside wall
of the foot. Having the time, I broke off 6 inch lengths of strapping
and ground down one end to mimic the bamboo trimming knife I saw in the
book. Is this what Mayor Mel was referring to when he talked about
having his dozen trimming blades for a day of trimming? Is there even
more shaping of the trimming knife for specific foot cross sections?
Taylor
Waco, Texas, USA
http://www3.baylor.edu/~Taylor_Hendrix/tjpots.htm
____________________________________________________________________________
__
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
Lee Love on tue 11 may 04
Hendrix, Taylor J. wrote:
>tool. The strapping is too thin and flexes when the tool is being used.
>Mucho chattering and not the purdy kind.
>
>
You can use this one for Onta type chattering.
>having his dozen trimming blades for a day of trimming? Is there even
>more shaping of the trimming knife for specific foot cross sections?
>
>
When I did my apprenticeship, as time went by, the apprentices
accumulated more trimming tools. In the first year, I think I only
had three, but at the end of three years I had a couple dozen, including
some that were worn out. My first tool was an old tool that one of my
Sempai (senior fellow apprentice) reversed the heads on for me.
Trimming counter-clockwise requires that the head be on the other side
of the kana.
Our basic tool was in the shape that was best for trimming the
"deshi yunomi" we were training on. We ended up with several kinds
of kana, because of the scraping of the inlay we did. Our tools
were sharpened on the inside edge, instead of the outside edge. I
think this was better for inlay scraping. It was also easy to sharpen
them with a file. We used the same tools to scrape glaze drips off of
pots before they were fired. Takes some practice to learn not to dig
into the surface, but gets rid of the runs and drips.
This book has good photos of the bamboo trimming tools:
Whitford, Philip, 1957-
*Handmade potter's tools* / Philip Whitford, Gordon Wong.
Tokyo ; New York : *Kodansha* International ; New York, N.Y. : Harper &
Row [distributor], 1986.
--
lee in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://potters.blogspot.com/ Commentary On Pottery
| |
|
