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In the private cryptic crossword puzzle, there is this clue:

The actor engineered a tool used in pottery making (8)

I have some letters from other answers, as follows:

?R?H?T?O

I have tried to find the word that matches this pattern, but there does not seem to be any word that matches, which makes me believe it may be a name (of an actor, perhaps)?

If so, I am not much of a movie buff, so perhaps there are some on this forum who are.

If it is not a name, is it a highly technical name of a pottery making tool of some kind?

Thanks for any pointers.

Nimus

I believe there is a wire tool called an ARCHETTO used in pottery to cut or shape clay. As you can see, this is an anagram of 'the actor'

Thank you for your help.

I did try to use the letters "the actor" as an anagram, but there was no word made out of the letters, except "theocrat", which obviously could not match the pattern I had.

I also tried to google "tools for pottery making", but didn't find the word you suggested.

With your help, I checked "archetto", and not many dictionaries defined it as a tool. It appears to be a word with an obscure meaning, when I found a couple of dictionaries which defined it as "a tool, consisting of a bow strung with wire, for trimming excess material from a piece being modelled".

Thanks again. The collective knowledge of this forum is amazing.

Glad you solved it, sort of. Apologies for giving you the answer rather than a pointer