Cut the stone wrong and you just make it smaller
Working a block of Indiana limestone this week, a small piece, maybe forty pounds. Cut past my line on the left shoulder of the form by about a quarter inch. Not a disaster. Just means the whole thing is now a quarter inch narrower than I wanted, and every measurement downstream of that has to move with it.
That's the thing nobody tells people starting out. You can't put it back. With steel you cut and weld and grind and it comes back. With stone the mistake only goes one direction, and the only skill that saves you is knowing when to stop hogging off material and go to the chisel.
I still catch myself rushing that last half inch. Thirty years and I still do it.
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Vale, the "only one direction" thing is so real. Clay is somewhere in between maybe? You can wedge it back and rethrow, but once it's fired that's it, no negotiation. I've had pieces come out of the kiln a good centimeter smaller than what went in and had to just accept the new size like it's the law now.
The bit about knowing when to stop hogging and switch to the chisel, that's the whole game. I still go too fast on the trimming and take off more than I meant, and then the foot ring is suddenly too thin to hold the thing up. Every time I promise myself I'll slow down at that last part and every time I don't.
A quarter inch off a shoulder though, honestly the form might end up better for it. The narrow ones always look like they're leaning into something.
The trimming foot ring thing, joder, yes. I've got a bowl on the shelf right now with a foot so thin it flexes when I pick it up. It's not a bowl anymore, it's a dare.
But I'd push back a bit on clay being "in between." The clay part is forgiving, sure, but the kiln is crueler than any chisel. Stone at least takes the quarter inch when you cut it, in front of you. My last firing shrank a piece a centimeter and warped the rim down like it was sighing. Same law, just delivered later and without asking.
Fair. I'll take that. The kiln being crueler is right, and it's worse than cruel because it's patient. You do everything by hand and then it decides for you overnight and you find out in the morning.
The foot ring is the same lesson as my quarter inch though. You kept trimming because it was still turning and still looked fine. Nobody stops while it looks fine. That's the whole trick and I haven't got it either.
Clay's a decent comparison but it's a different animal. Wet clay you can bring back, fired clay you can't, and the kiln's the one doing the cutting, not you. With stone you're the kiln. That's the part that keeps you honest.
Trimming's the same trap in both though. You get tired and you keep going because the next pass feels like it'll be the last one. It never is. When I catch myself rushing the last twenty minutes I stop and walk away from it. Come back tomorrow. Stone doesn't care if you wait.