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My water tends to easily leave water marks on my teapots. Because of this I give my pots a rub with a cloth after use to diminish the water marks. Some of my yixing pots develop a shiny patina. I'd like to reduce the development of that. Any suggestions for cleaning the pot after use to reduce the shine??

Usually the shine/patina is considered part of the appeal of Yixing pots, and people take effort to build up the patina on their pots. If you really want to remove the patina, you can try brushing the pot with a wet toothbrush and baking soda. But on the long run this might ruin your pot's surface. If you really don't like the shine/patina, maybe you can consider other types of teaware (non yixing).

I think what I'm referring to is the 'monk head shine' as opposed to the softer patina glow.

I wasn't familiar with baking soda ruining the pot surface. How so?

Baking soda is mildly abrasive, if it is used very frequently it might erode the clay.

Different clays pick up different amounts of shine, I would not worry too much about how much shine the pot has. I don't make special efforts to make the pots extra shiny, but I also don't think it's worth it to prevent the pot from getting patina if it does so naturally... I know some people frown upon overly shiny pots. I think that is largely a reaction to other people coming up with all kinds of tricks and procedures to make pots very shiny. I like to just let the pot do what it does without too much intervention, and then enjoy the individual variation from pot to pot

I think what you do already is fine if you want to reduce the monk head shine. I know someone that rubs his pot with a microfiber cloth after each use and pours water over the pot after filling it to help prevent tea stains around the edge of the pot opening (this has only happened with pots that have a raised edge around the opening, for me). I know what you mean, about the monk head shine. I don't mind it, but see the appeal of a cleaner pot and a more subtle shine. Just comes down to preference.

Thanks for your perspectives!

A couple years ago I was more into wet style brewing (pouring tea over pot, etc.) Doing that and the rubbing required to keep stains off the pots may be the source of the extra shine on some of my teapots, now that I think about. I much prefer dry style brewing these days and there's much less stain buildup and cleaning of the teapot required.

While rubbing away some tea stain spots on a zini teapot I use for puerh I accidentally gave it ‘monk’s head shine”. It only took one time and so little effort I didn’t notice it was happening. Years later, it still has it! I think it looks pretty tacky. None of my other teapots have this kind of unnatural-looking patina, they have a normal glow.

If your water is leaving spots, consider using a different water, one that doesn’t produce lime scale.

Could someone share an image or a pointer to an image with the undesirable 'monk's head shine'? I'm having trouble visualizing what you are discussing.

debunix wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 06, 2019 10:09 am

Could someone share an image or a pointer to an image with the undesirable 'monk's head shine'? I'm having trouble visualizing what you are discussing.

It looks shiny like a bald man’s head. Contrast these two F1 zini shuipings.

Unpatinated Zini: Monk’s Head Shine:

This a modern zini pot I use frequently for shu pu er. Outdoor photo is with the shine. Indoor photo is without. Lighting is quite different, but I think you can see the difference.

Gotcha, those are pretty clear. We're not talking glossy like shiny glaze, and bald scalp is a good analogy.

It just dawned on me that walnut shell powder might work well since it is softer clay, harder than scale, and will not dissolve into the clay. I used this years ago to remove lime scale from Tokoname bonsai pots with great success. It worked better than CLR and other acids.

For those who don't know, I also collect and sell knives and swords: I polish metal fairly frequently with various grits of polish (and sometimes I even go all the way down to 200 grit and then work my way back up)!

Rubbing a microfiber cloth across clay is basically polishing it, so if it's too high of a polish, you can use a coarser cloth to knock the shine down. You can try rubbing a cotton t-shirt or a cotton towel all over the pot and it should reduce the glossy appearance significantly.

Interesting point about the coarseness of the cloth and affect on polish. I often use a bar towel/cloth these days which is coarser than microfiber for sure. I'll pay more attention to that.

I've never used walnut powder before. Interesting idea to consider.