plaster on trowels

Scrape it off with ANOTHER putty knife before it gets real hard. Do it immediately after use.

Or dont get any plaster on your tools :)

I can't imagine letting any material harden on any trowel. The time to clean tools is while the applied product is still viable. YOu would normally already have a margin trowel, flip brush, and water while you are working so cleaning hawk and trowel are a constant, on-going thing.

If you're talking about a light skim of material that sets up, I've always had good luck with a razor blade scraper to get the last bits of material off trowels.

hello cd,

Heat the tool with a torch. The metal expands faster than the plaster.

Clean your tools while the plaster is still wet.

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I'm in a large plaster project right now and need plaster to come off my tools more-readily. Ideas?

It seems to accrete on the bottom of trowels. I sand drywall knives down physically, but I look at that as a method of last resort.

Thx for your comment.

I think a torch would work well. Thank you.

I'm an ex-mo because I have an xtian conscience. Don't believe in "translations" found at the bottom of some farmboy's hat.

I ended up using plastic trowels when it got down to the short strokes.

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$ cat /etc/hostname fred-desktop $

This project has been up near La Cueva, so I know you've got a bead on me.

plaster sticks *amazingly well* to metal, and your trowels can't be the thing you care about when the plaster is going.

that is, if the plaster on the walls isn't more important to you.

I should get a proper razor-scraper again.

When I'm plastering, I keep my trowels in a bucket of water, so the residue doesn't set. I wipe them with a rag before use, because its hard to get plaster to stick to a wet trowel.