Call In Iron Trimming

[satprof]

Today's Alphapuzzle cryptic clue.

[emmie]

enlist?

[MargoTester]

Festoon?

[emmie]

press??

[Jackdaw33]

F ring e.

[Dummyfluter]

Well done Jackdaw -
FRINGE

[donny48]

fettle

verb
verb: fettle; 3rd person present: fettles; past tense: fettled; past participle: fettled; gerund or present participle: fettling

trim or clean the rough edges of (a metal casting or a piece of pottery) before firing.

fe (iron) with etl (let as in call in tennis) + t
This is all very iffy and I can't parse the final "t"

[donny48]

Forget my work of fiction, Jackdaw has it.

[emmie]

could be jack.

[Jackdaw33]

Ring (call) inside fe (iron). Has to be.

[satprof]

Nicely worked out, Jackdaw. Thanks.

Although there are quite a few 6-letter possibilities, the overwhelming quantity of the letter represented by 8 makes it easy to work out which one is probably Fringe. After that, it's supposed to be 9/10 for difficulty, but they must be joking!

[mouseymick]

Fringe .. 4,5,13,6,18,8 and Q is 23. Perhaps the 9/10 difficulty was in solving the cryptic clue. Stay safe!