The pointed-steel tool,
The steel tool with flat point.
To begin with, a large piece of tile clay is worked until all the air-holes are out of it, as already described.
A wooden board which is absolutely level, having previously been covered with a piece of wet, white cheese-cloth, which is tacked securely upon it, the clay is moulded into a square by hand and laid upon the board. It is then pounded flat with the thick part of the hand into an irregular square cake, and rolled with a rolling-pin, wet with slip, until it is a little less than half an inch thick.
A wooden frame made of a board fourteen and a half inches wide by twenty-one inches long, with a strip of wood the same length, seven-eighths of an inch thick when planed, and two inches wide, screwed on to each of the long edges, should have been provided beforehand. A piece of wet cheese-cloth is spread upon this board, and the clay square is carefully transferred to it, fitting it carefully into the form by patting and pressing with the hand. It should then be smoothed with the rectangular tool of sheet steel.