With what may we surround [the utensil]? With plaster or with gypsum, with pitch or with wax, with mud or with excrement, with mortar or with crushed shards, or with any substance that can be smoothed. We may not surround [a utensil] with tin or with lead, since they cover but do not seal. We may not surround [a utensil] with a fat pressed fig or with dough kneaded with fruit juice, so that it does not come to be disqualified, but if one did surround [with food], it has protected [the utensil].

[Regarding] the stopper of a barrel that is loose but does not fall off: R’ Yehudah says: It protects; but the Sages say: It does not protect. [If] its finger-hold is sunk into [the barrel]: [When] a sheretz is inside it, the barrel is tamei; [when] a sheretz is in the barrel, the food inside [the finger-hold] is tamei.

[Regarding] a ball or a coil of reed-grass that were placed over the mouth of a barrel: If one plastered the sides, it has not protected [the uten- sil] until he plasters above them and below them, and the same is true for a woven cloth. [If the cover] was of papyrus or of leather and one tied it with a cord, [then] if one plastered the sides, it has protected [the utensil].

[Regarding] a barrel that peeled and its pitch remains intact, and similarly containers of fish brine sealed with gypsum at the rim: R’ Yehudah says: They do not protect; but the Sages say: They protect.

[If] a barrel developed a hole and the sediments blocked it, they have protected it. [If] one plugged [the hole] with a vine, [it does not protect] until one plasters the sides. [If] there were two [vines], [they do not protect] until one plasters the sides and between one vine and the other. [Regarding] a board that was placed over the mouth of an oven: If one plastered the sides, it protects. [If] there were two [boards], [they do not protect] until one plasters the sides and between one board and the other. [If] one joined them with sinim or with shugmin, one need not apply plaster in the middle.

An old oven was within a new [oven] and there was a sereedah over the mouth of the old [oven]: [If] the old [oven] is removed and the sereedah would fall, [then] everything is tamei, but if not, everything is tahor. A new [oven] was within an old [oven] and there was a sereedah over the mouth of the old [oven]: If there is less than a handbreadth between the new [oven] and the sereedah, [then] everything within the new [oven] is tahor.

[Regarding] stewpots [placed] one within the other and their rims are even: [If] the sheretz is in the upper or lower [stewpot], it is tamei and the rest are tahor. [The pots] were [perforated] to the extent that liq- uid would enter: [If] the sheretz is in the upper [pot], all [the pots] are tamei. [If the sheretz was] in the lower [pot], it is tamei, but all [the other pots] are tahor. [If] the sheretz is in the upper [pot] and the lower [pot] extends [above it], it and the lower [pot] are tamei. [If the sheretz is] in the upper [pot] and the lower [pot] extends [above it], any [pot] that contains enough beverage to moisten is tamei.

[Regarding] metal utensils, their flatwares and their hollowares are tamei. [If] they break, they become tahor. [If] one refashioned them into utensils, they revert to their former state of tumah. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: [This does] not [apply] to every [kind of] tumah, but [only] to corpse-tumah.

Every metal utensil that has a name of its own is tamei, except for a door, a door bolt, a lock, the socket that is under the pivot, the pivot, the beam, and a pipe, since these are made [to be attached] to the ground.

[Regarding] one who makes utensils from iron ore, or from a metal ingot, or from the hoop of a wheel, or from sheet metal, or from plating, from the bases of utensils, or from the rims of utensils, from the handles of utensils, from scraps, or from filings, [the utensils are] tahor. R’ Yochanan ben Nuri says: Even [utensils made] from cut pieces. [But utensils made] from pieces of broken utensils, [or] from fragments, or from nails that were known to have been made from [other] utensils, are tamei. [If one made utensils] from nails, Beis Shammai rule [them] tamei, but Beis Hillel rule [them] tahor.

[Regarding a piece of] tamei iron that one mixed with [a piece of] tahor iron, if the majority is from the tamei [source, the newly formed utensil] is tamei. And if the majority is from the tahor [source, the utensil] is tahor. [If it is] half and half, it is tamei. And the same applies [to a utensil made] from chalama and cattle dung. [A door bolt with] a knob is tamei. But [if it is] plated, it is tahor. A pin tumbler and a bolt are tamei. And [regarding] a [door bolt with a] knob, R’ Yehoshua says: [One may only] drag it from this door and hang it on another one on the Sabbath. R’ Tarfon says: It is like all [other] utensils, and may be carried within a courtyard.

The bit of a bridle is tamei. But the cheek-pieces [are] tahor. R’ Eliezer rules the cheek-pieces tamei. And the Sages say: Nothing is tamei except the bit. But when they are joined, everything is tamei.

A whorl [made] of metal, R’ Akiva rules it tamei, but the Sages rule it tahor. And a plated [whorl] is tahor. A spindle, a distaff, a rod, a symponia, and a flute, [if they are made] of metal, they are tamei. But [if they are] plated, they are tahor. [However,] if a symponia has a receptacle for [valves resembling] wings, it is tamei in either case.