Yixing care?

[shogun89]

So theres alot of talk all over the internet about yixing care. Words such as mineral deposits and polishing come up. My question is, how does one "take care" of a yixing teapot? Obviously lids stay off during drying and all that stuff but how does one polish a pot, with what? How do you keep away mineral deposits? and if acquired how do you get rid of them?

Thanks for any help!

[Salsero]

how does one "take care" of a yixing teapot?

+1

[wyardley]

So theres alot of talk all over the internet about yixing care. Words such as mineral deposits and polishing come up. My question is, how does one "take care" of a yixing teapot? Obviously lids stay off during drying and all that stuff but how does one polish a pot, with what? How do you keep away mineral deposits? and if acquired how do you get rid of them?

I feel like pot raising (yáng hú) has been discussed before.
Oh yeah...
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?p=40890#40890

w/r/t mineral deposits, drying upside-down has helped a lot for me. If you're getting a lot, it might just be that your water has too high a mineral content, and you should consider blending in some RO filtered water or something. Also, I doubt mineral deposits will really hurt your pots.

I think everyone has their own approach to pot maintenance, but basically, try not to think about it too much when you're actually using the pot, other than pouring any extra tea over the pot. Then at the end (or, if you're a little OCD like me, during tea making as well), use a WET brush or cloth to distribute the tea deposits fairly evenly around the outside of the pot, taking special care to hit the spots which frequently don't get a lot (bottom, right under the lid, right under the button, bottom of the spout, etc.).

If you're using a tea boat without a stand, you can also brush up the tea sitting around the bottom of the boat back up. Just don't let it sit like that too long without pouring the tea out, or you'll get an uneven patina around the bottom of the pot, or an unsightly ring.

How quickly the teapot starts to pick up a shine depends on both the clay and the tea, so be patient. It takes a while to learn the proper balance of "wabi-sabi" and careful maintenance... you won't get good results if you try to polish it too much, but the pot will start to look dull and develop a very uneven patina if you don't do anything at all.

See also Tim's posts at:
http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... xings.html
http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... ixing.html

[Salsero]

Thanks, Will. I don't know why this is so hard to grasp, but the repetition helps!

[Maitre_Tea]

Hou De had a post a while back on using crushed tea seeds to clean teapots...if you order something you can message him so he can include some tea seed powder for you pro bono

[wyardley]

Here we're talking about dirtying them, not cleaning them, though. :>

[Trioxin]

I usually polish mine with a lint free cloth, slightly moist with tea.

As for mineral deposits, since I have an under the sink filter, I rinse in cold water and dab dry the inside a bit. No mineral deposits since the filter has been installed.