bench notes · Gyeongju

The Mending Bench

Cracked teapots, brass staples, and what gets brewed in them afterwards. One bench, a drawer of brass wire, and a shelf of pots that were all broken once.

A white porcelain teapot with two brass staples across a short crack, steam rising from the lid
A white pot, mended in March and drinking tea again by April. The staples sit across the crack, not over it — they pull the two sides together instead of covering the seam.
01on the bench

Two pots, two very different repairs

On the bench this week: a red stoneware pot with a hairline running down the lid seat, and a white porcelain pot whose handle came away in somebody's dishwasher. They are the same problem in the same place and they get opposite treatments.

The red pot gets two brass staples and nothing else. The crack is short, it sits where the lid rests, and that part of the pot never sees a flame — the staples take the load and the seam stays open enough to look honest. The white pot gets its handle set back on with hide glue and a small brass plate underneath, because a handle carries the whole weight of a full pot and glue on its own will let go the first time somebody lifts it carelessly.

Neither repair is invisible, and neither is meant to be. A pot that has been mended should look mended — it is a record of what happened to it.

02mending log

What has been through here

Kept roughly, newest first. Some of these are not teapots at all, but the work is the same.

  • 2026-08-27White porcelain pot, handle re-set with hide glue and a brass plate. Back on the shelf, in use.
  • 2026-07-11Small celadon pot, chipped spout ground back and re-polished. No staple needed — a chip is not a crack.
  • 2026-05-30Red stoneware pot, hairline at the lid seat, two staples. Third time this one has been on the bench.
  • 2026-03-08A tea caddy with a split lid. Not a pot, but the same two staples and the same rule about heat.
  • 2026-01-19Lid knob off a white gaiwan, re-attached. Small job, fiddly, took longer than the pot before it.
  • 2025-11-02First pot of the winter: a celadon pot with a crack down one shoulder, three staples, still in use.
Three mended teapots standing on a shelf, each with visible brass staples
Three from the shelf. Different clays, different decades, all still holding water.
03how a staple holds

Tension, not glue

A staple is a small piece of brass wire bent into a bowtie, and it holds a crack shut by pulling rather than by sticking. Two shallow holes are drilled either side of the crack, angled slightly away from it, and the staple is tapped into both. Because the holes lean outwards, the staple is under tension the moment it is seated — it wants to straighten out, and the only thing stopping it is the crack closing.

Cross-section of a porcelain wall with three brass staples seated in angled holes, and a cup with a staple below
Holes lean away from the crack. The staple pulls inward, the crack closes, and the brass takes the load that the clay can no longer carry.

Glue behaves the other way around. It fills the gap and holds by adhesion, which works fine on a cold dry surface and stops working the moment the pot is heated and cooled a few dozen times. A glued seam on a pot that gets boiling water will open again; a stapled one usually will not. That is the whole reason the two techniques are not interchangeable.

What kills a repair

Dishwashers, thermal shock, and lifting a full pot by the handle you just fixed. Any of the three will undo a good morning's work in about four seconds.

04tea afterwards

Does a mended pot brew differently?

No, and I have tested it more carefully than the question deserves. The same leaf, the same water, the same pot before and after a repair, side by side on two afternoons: no difference anyone in this house could taste. Brass does not react with tea at any temperature a pot will meet.

A white cup with a brass band and a stapled crack, steam rising
What the mended pots are actually for.
  • Water just off the boil for the red clays, a little cooler for the porcelain.
  • Short steeps, many of them. A pot that has been repaired does not need to be treated gently.
  • Rinse with hot water and a cloth. No soap, no scrubbing, and never the dishwasher.
  • A repaired pot left dry on a shelf for a year is fine. Clay does not hold a grudge.
05get in touch

Writing to the bench

Questions about a repair, a crack you are not sure about, or a pot you want looked at are all welcome at bench@teapot.arham.eu.org. Photographs help more than descriptions do.

What I do not do: sell pots, buy pots, ship anything anywhere, or run a newsletter for anyone to sign up to. This is one bench in one room, and the pages here are the whole of it.