Kemper Wire Sculpting Tool Set DSS For Light Removal & Shaping Clay, Dough, Pottery 5 PC 6-1/2'' TOOLS

Great set for beginners. I bought some medium monster clay to sculpt a form for a Halloween mask. The last time I used clay was in high school as a one semester elective. Thankfully, none of my "sculptures" survived and we are no longer cursed by their sight.However, my experience from that class 15+ years ago told me not to buy the cheapest set. These are quite sturdy and well made.I did buy an additional set of specialty tools (rakes, coiled wire, etc) from a dedicated art company; basically a set of 5 for almost $100. They are amazing!!! But these Kemper tools hold up in comparison.Remember, these are for sculpting... Not digging pieces of clay out of the block. For that use a dedicated heavy duty tool!!!

These are the best tools for trimming small amounts of clay when approaching the leather hard stage. I make my own trimming tools with sharp edges for removing more clay at a time, but for the finishing touches, I go for the wire tools. I find while trimming a foot on a bowl or mug that they don,t inadvertently catch on the spinning clay like a sharpened trim tool sometimes will. Also lately I have unfortunately lost a few pieces to cracking partly because of no fillets (rounded inside corners) on my pieces. The wire tools provide nice shapes to round the inside corners.I find myself using the same two to three wire shapes most of the time but I am sure as time goes on I will venture on to the others.I am primarily a wheel guy but occasionally I mix in a little hand building with slabs to my thrown pieces. So that said, maybe someone else that hand builds will chime in.If I had a complaint it would be that some of the shapes are too similar to each other. Either vary the shapes, or reduce the quantity of tools and reduce the price.EnjoyRusty

Kemper. These guys know what they are doing. Easily the best looking tools around. You will be back. I use these on medium chavant, monster clay, super sculpey and magic sculpt. They will work on most clays and it takes a decent amount of force to deform the wire. At this price, they are virtually free and you know this if you have ever bought the correct supplies and spent time making your own.

This brand is the standard tool brand because they are easy to find and get; however, not rust resistant. I dot understand when pottery is half about the water why they would rust. Some type of protectant would be nice.

These kind of tools are amazing for clay use, I absolutely love them. This brand is quite good from what I can tell, I have been using them on leather hard clay to assemble a piece and they haven't bent or shown any give. I absolutely love and recommend.

These sculpting tools are amazing. They are small enough to help with tiny details and strong enough to not break. I have used them frequently and they haven't gotten loose or shown any damage. They look brand new even after a lot of use! The only downside is that the wood can be "stained" by clay, but as long as you keep them free of it the dirt and gunk shouldn't be any issue!

My physical therapist recommended these for my carpal tunnel. I know, nothing to do with clay but you use them by applying lotion to your arm and "scraping" in the direction of the muscle to help with carpal tunnel pain. They are amazing and saved me from needing surgery!! I cannot rant and rave about these enough!

Well, I ordered the wrong product, but wow these things are better than what I thought I wanted! If you're looking for ribbon loops, these are not them, but I found these wire tools to be even more useful. They are a uniform thickness, which means there's no specific angle you have to hold them at and no sharp edges to ruin your art when you accidentally use the wrong angle. When clay is soft, these easily take off large chunks. At leather hard, you can lightly scrape back and forth to shape and get the tiniest shavings. I honestly love these and they have seriously upped my sculpting ability. Super happy accident.