Bat

DEFINITION

A plaster slab on which wet clay is left to lose sufficient moisture to make it plastic. Also, a disk that can be attached to a potter's wheel so that a pot can be thrown upon it, then the bat removed with the pot still on it, so that another can be attached to throw another pot, the earlier pot trimmed and removed from the bat when it is leather-hard. Such round bats are often made of plaster, wood, or plastic. In the Britain, "bat" has a different meaning: a bat is a kiln shelf, and so bat wash is kiln wash. Sometimes spelled batt.