Precision Pottery: Making a Teapot with a Damascus Steel Lid and Handle

This has been one of the most challenging yet and rewarding projects I've worked on to date. The goal was to combine a combination of materials in one quality and functional piece. I haven't seen the craft of blacksmithing combined with ceramics much before either, so it felt nice to be working on not often done and unique. You can read below about the different stages of the making process, including steps that weren't captured on video. I hope you enjoy watching what I did manage to capture!
I started out with a by making the teapot body. Its made from a white stoneware clay with red iron oxide mixed through to give a darker colour once fired. The body and spout are thrown on the wheel and left to dry whats called "leather hard". At this stage, the pot is turned. The tool is made from a hacksaw blade, they're my favourite type of turning tool. I also added a small recess to the rim for the lid to sit in, then the pot was faceted, and the spout attached. An extra step here that I didn't film was adding the handle lugs, the parts of the handle for the timber to join onto. The lugs had a hole in them to accommodate a dowel timber end, and a pin hole allowing another smaller dowel to hold the assembly in place. These were added at leather hard, refined when the clay was completely dry, and lapped totally flat after firing to meet the timber connector nice and flush. The timber components were also turned on a lathe making the dowel integral to the square block thats visible. It was fiddly and time consuming getting the fit up tight and flush. Everything was made to stay in place without necessarily need glue or epoxy.
The steel components were made by forge welding two different steel alloys together making whats commonly known as damascus steel. An initial stack of 14 layers was tack welded, then forge welded together to make one solid billet. This was forged down, cut and stacked again to make 56 layers. This was then forged into the lid and handle, which I did off camera. All these steel components were finely sanded and polished before etching in ferric chloride acid to reveal the pattern. Another step I did off camera was turning the small timber knob. Necessary holes were tapped into the timber parts, and the whole lot assembled with some brass screws, timber dowels and epoxy once confident with the fit up. And it's not complete till its tested with a good cup of tea!
Hope you enjoyed watching, if you're interested in buying this teapot, feel free to get in touch via Instagram, or email.
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Cheers!

[@jameslumsdon-hill914]

Beautiful

[@fionah7317]

Amazing work and great channel! Looking forward to more videos! :)

[@alexrains1893]

Very beautiful work. You would think the damascus would be out of place but it all works so wonderfully together.

[@skegbyguy]

The teapot is stunning, but the metal work is extraordinary!!!

[@forgedandthrown]

Thank you!

[@mitchelthinks]

whoa you're trying new stuff and it's awesome!! cool vid! this is definitely one of my favorite vids so far

[@padrojam]

Absolutely beautiful!

[@forgedandthrown]

Thanks!

[@sultanalketbi6712]

enjoyable video to watch and learn from. Do you mind if i ask what kind of camera are you using to share such a wonderful experience? Thank you for sharing !!

[@marciasilviajohnson6461]

Where you got the lid and handle? Beautiful, thank you 🤗

[@marciasilviajohnson6461]

I mean do you sell them?