r/Pottery • u/Single-Fee-1708 • 8d ago

Question! Trimming question

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This has recently started to happen to me while trimming, and at first I thought the problem was that I was not pushing hard enough or the wheel was too slow (which usually fixes this problem for me), but my usual fixes did not work. I managed to get it pretty even eventually by slowing the wheel down, but how can I avoid this from happening at all?

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u/rayfound 8d ago

this is from using a wide trimming tool before the pot is turned round on center, causing the tool and your arm to oscillate with the pot.

I like to start with a very fine point initially and just take the high spots (it shouldn't make contact all the way around pot initially), with a very rigid hand.

once uniform round on center, I can change to trimming for shape with tools of varying width.

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u/ohshethrows 8d ago

Removing some of that irregular bulk with a surform tool (cheese grater) is also a good trick for beginners or people like me who aren’t beginners but hate trimming