wooden float or steel

[bob]

i was told that when using board finish first coat is best applied with a wooden float and second skim coat with a steel to apply and polish,is this correct?

[Phil L]

Steel, never wood for skimming, in fact, in 30 years of being in the building trade, I don't think I've ever seen anyone put anything on with a wooden trowel - a wooden darby is sometimes used to flatten off render, but never finishing plaster, and certainly never to apply plaster.

[NT]

wood gets used for lime plaster

NT

[Phil L]

I've never seen anyone use lime plaster, I've hacked masses of it off, but it usually gets replaced with render if it's for a chemical DPC, and drylined or a gypsum-based backing plaster if it's not.

[David WE Roberts]

These days I don't think they make the wood ones much. I have a yellow fibreglass (I think) float which looks a bit like a wood one. It is used for finishing render.

[Phil L]

Yep, I have one of those - it's not used for applying render but for rubbing it up when almost set