manual wheels?

I think kick wheels are hard work!! I like my electric. :o)

I like the quiet rhythm of a treadle wheel and always have. I feel like an appendage to an electric one. My treadle is part of me.

Steve Bath UK

In article , Hana Rednib writes

they are useful as a second wheel. they force you to make every touch count. with an electric you can get lazy & sloppy. you can't do that kickers.

steve

steve graber

For the hobbyist, kick wheels are great. For a professional, it's kind of like hand saws versus power saws for carpenters--they both do the work, but one does the work 10 times quicker... I learned on a kick wheel, was forced to an electric when apprenticing and they didn't have room for another kick wheel, and after a while found I was throwing pots faster (no, not better) than my master potters.

Brad Sondahl

-- For original art, music, pottery, and literature, visit my homepage

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Hi Brad,

Actually, here in Japan, the best carpenters and cabinet makers still use hand tools and their work is much finer than we find typically in the USA.

Power tool does not necessarily mean faster. Nor does it mean better. While I fire with a wood kiln, my korean keiyaki kick wheel is actually more important to me than my wood kiln. Many potters who studying with my teacher, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, use Korean Kickwheels. As so do Randy Johnston and Willem Gebben.

As someone who came to pottery from Zen Buddhism, I can tell you that the low momentum kickwheel is much more meditative. It can be similar to zen meditation, if you pay attention to your breath.

Also, I find that I can throw all day on the korean kickwheel with no leg or back pain. I cannot say the same for my throwing on my shimpo gold electric, back in St. Paul, MN. I think the leg movement helps both the legs and the back. The traditional throwing platform, soft clay and throwing off the hump is also conducive to good posture.

If you check out this link you can see a wheel something like mine:

Hi Brad,

Actually, here in Japan, the best carpenters and cabinet makers still use hand tools and their work is much finer than we find typically in the USA.

Power tool does not necessarily mean faster. Nor does it mean better. While I fire with a wood kiln, my korean keiyaki kick wheel is actually more important to me than my wood kiln. Many potters who studying with my teacher, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, use Korean Kickwheels. As so do Randy Johnston and Willem Gebben.

As someone who came to pottery from Zen Buddhism, I can tell you that the low momentum kickwheel is much more meditative. It can be similar to zen meditation, if you pay attention to your breath.

Also, I find that I can throw all day on the korean kickwheel with no leg or back pain. I cannot say the same for my throwing on my shimpo gold electric, back in St. Paul, MN. I think the leg movement helps both the legs and the back. The traditional throwing platform, soft clay and throwing off the hump is also conducive to good posture.

If you check out this link you can see a wheel something like mine:

Indeed, I like to do a lot of my trimming on the kickwheel, it's generally relaxing. That, and kickwheels don't do anything unexpected that electric can (like accelerate rapidly)

Myself, I only throw on it as a last resort, since my bad right knee doesn't like the motion, and it's rather late for me to learn to spin the wheel clockwise...

Hi Richard,

You might find the Korean kickwheels "possible." Actually, "kickwheel is a misnomer, because you actually pull with them. I throw counter-clockwise and I pull the wheel with a bare left foot.