Start Simple, Add as You Go
New potters often overbuy tools. Stephen Jepson's advice: start with a basic kit and add tools only when you encounter a specific problem they solve. A $15 beginner set covers 90% of what you need for the first year. The most important tool will always be your hands.
Essential Pottery Tools
Cutting & ShapingWire Clay Cutter
A thin wire strung between two handles. Slides under pots to release them from the wheel head. Also cuts blocks of clay from a bag and slices through clay during wedging. The single most-used tool in any pottery studio. Keep one at every station.
Fettling Knife
A thin, flexible blade for cutting clay precisely. Essential for slab construction — cutting clean lines along templates. Also trims excess clay from seams, carves details, and cleans up rims. A craft knife or X-Acto works as a substitute, but a proper fettling knife flexes where you need it to.
Needle Tool
A sharp needle set in a handle. Scores surfaces before joining (the first step of slip and score). Measures wall thickness by pushing through the wall. Pops air bubbles on the wheel. Trims rims to level by cutting through a spinning pot. Small tool, many uses.
Wooden Rib
A flat, kidney-shaped piece of wood. The workhorse shaping tool. On the wheel, it shapes the outside of pots and compresses clay to strengthen it. In hand-building, it smooths surfaces and blends seams. Different curves handle different profiles — most potters collect several.
Metal Rib
A thin, flexible metal scraper. Unlike a wooden rib that pushes clay around, a metal rib shaves clay off. Creates sharp, clean profiles on wheel-thrown pots. Removes throwing lines for a smooth finish. Essential for refined, precise forms.
Sponge
Controls moisture while throwing — squeezing water into the pot keeps hands lubricated. Smooths rims and surfaces. Absorbs excess water from inside pots (water left inside weakens the bottom). Use natural elephant ear sponges for the best feel, or synthetic sponges cut to size.
Loop Trimming Tool
A wire loop attached to a handle. Used to trim leather-hard pots on the wheel — carving foot rings, shaping the bottom, removing weight. Different loop shapes (round, square, pointed) create different profiles. Every wheel potter needs at least one.
Wooden Modeling Tool
A double-ended wooden tool with different shaped tips. Blends coils, smooths interior seams in slab work, adds detail and texture. The boxwood modeling tool is a studio staple — one end pointed, one end flat.
Rolling Pin & Guide Sticks
A standard rolling pin with two guide sticks of equal thickness placed on either side of the clay. The guide sticks ensure perfectly even slab thickness — the rolling pin rides on them and cannot compress the clay below that height. Use 1/4-inch sticks for standard slabs.
Nice-to-Have Tools (Not Essential)
- Rubber rib — smooths and polishes surfaces without removing clay. Great for finishing.
- Calipers — measure pot openings for fitting lids. Essential only if you make lidded pieces.
- Banding wheel — a turntable for hand-building and glazing. Very useful, not strictly required.
- Chamois strip — wraps around rims while throwing for a perfectly smooth edge.
- Slab roller — a machine that rolls perfectly even slabs. A luxury for production work.
- Extruder — pushes clay through shaped dies for handles, coils, and tubes.
Tool Care
Wooden tools: rinse after each use, dry thoroughly, and occasionally oil with mineral oil to prevent cracking. Metal tools: dry completely after washing to prevent rust — a light coat of oil on carbon steel tools extends their life. Wire cutters: check for kinks and replace twisted wires. Most pottery tools last years with minimal care.
See Every Tool in Action
Reading about tools helps. Watching them in use is better. Stephen Jepson's video lessons show each tool being used in context — so you see not just what the tool does, but how an expert holds it, when they reach for it, and what the result looks like.