Our tools are made from woods that hold up well against use and water - hardwoods like cherry, maple, and walnut. They are designed to get messy, so don’t worry about keeping them shiny. As long as you don’t leave your tools soaking in water for very long (i.e. don’t leave them in your water bowl while you’re throwing, etc.), they should last for several years.

You should alway try and store your tools in a spot that is NOT airtight. Since water is getting on the wood, letting some air circulate around the tools is the best practice to ensure mold or mildew doesn’t form on this natural material. If you’re able to leave your tools laying flat on a surface to dry out after use, this can also help keep unwelcome microbes out!

Before we ship your tools to you we coat them in mineral oil. This oil penetrates into the wood and helps protect it from water and wet clay. After some use, your tool might look less shiny than when it arrived, but it still has that water-repelling oil deep in the grain!

For sure! You can reapply a finish (also called conditioning the wood) as often as you like. It’s difficult for us to give a set amount of time that you should do this since every potter uses their tools at different frequencies. The best way to tell when to condition your tools is to see if they are looking very dry or lighter in color. Similar to putting lotion on our skin, when the wood looks dried out and feels less smooth, it’s time to apply a new finish to “moisturize” the wood. We recommend you use a natural and food-grade wood finish. Anything you would put on your cutting board or wood spoons works well! We also sell a specially formulated conditioner called Rib Rub. It’s a combo of beeswax, mineral oil, and lavender essential oil that works great and smells great.

There are a few reasons why your tools might warp.

1. The tool got a little too wet. Maybe you left it in your slip bucket all day? Maybe you used it for 4 hours straight? If waaaaaaaaaay too much water hits the wood it’s gonna react. 
2. The wood might just really want to bow. While our team inspects each tool for quality at every step of our manufacturing process, sometimes a tool is cut from an odd spot in a board and it is just gonna warp. This doesn’t happen too often, but it is the beauty of working with a natural and sometimes unpredictable material! 

If your tools warps, leave it on a flat surface to dry out for a few days. Oftentimes, the wood will dry back straight and then you can use it again with no issue. To help avoid future warping, make sure that at the end of every use you clean your tools and wipe them down with a dry towel. Then, let them further dry overnight on a flat surface exposed to the air. 

If your tool continues to warp, reach out to us at help@garritytools.com and we’ll send you a new one on us!

If the point of your T1 or the bottom of your Unfoot have been worn down by use, you can use a little bit of sandpaper to sharpen them up. First, make sure your tool is completely dry. With a piece of sandpaper on a flat hard surface, rub the edge back and forth at an angle that follows the original bevel of the tool. This will remove a small amount of the wood and sharpen up the points for ya.