How to Make Pouring Holes in a Clay Teapot

Video Transcript

"Now, I'm going to attach my spout to the teapot. But before I attach a spout, I have to make the pouring holes in there. So I'm going to put my spout, you know, on here. Figure out about where it should be. And we'll talk a little bit more about spouts after I make these pouring holes. Make sure that's centered on there. What I'm going to do now is just lightly trace around the spout. I'm going to take that off. I'm going to use my funneling knife and I'm going to start in the very center and I'm going to keep my finger behind there. Start in the center and I'm going to twirl that funneling knife around. And there's going to be a very rough edge around the inside of there and I'm wiping it with my finger. I'm going to go around here. Now some people ask, "well why do you have to make these holes, rather than making just a big opening?" Now, I've done both, but I've had problems. If I use... if I don't have these holes and I put tea bags in there, the tea bags end up getting stuck in the spout. So it's better to have the holes. That's why I put them there. Some people also use tea leaves, and if the holes aren't too big, the tea leaves stay in rather than coming out of the pot. That's the reason for the holes. You want to at least make one hole in the center with a series of holes, like one row of holes around the side of that center hole. If it's a really, really big opening, you could do a little bit more. But there's not a whole lot of need to do more than this. Now just make sure that you wipe it all, especially on the inside, soften it up. Push your finger into it so that it's soft. Because when you go to rinse out your pot, I don't think your fingers are going to go in there, but they could and it would be very sharp. This is all ready to attach the spout."