I'm skimming my first ceiling but some places the trowel leaves marks at the edges.
Its an old victorian ceiling that I undercovered with kingspan and plasterboard and isnt perfectly straight in any dimension, so when i use the trowel to smooth an area which dips in the ends of the trowel dig in and make grooves.
Is a solution to file off the corners of the trowel? If so how should I do this and to what shape? Any advice please ...
George
Are you sure you have a finishing trowel, these are usually quite springy compared to normal floats. Small swirls left by the corner of the float can normally be blended in during the final polish.
Richard
Plasterers like well worn trowels, and the corners will have been worn a bit (not sharp). Traditionally, a plasterer bought a new trowel and gave it to a renderer to use to wear it in, before taking it back to use for finishing.
However, you're going to struggle if the surface isn't flat. The scratch (under-) coat plaster is to make the surface flat, so that you can polish a finish coat onto it. Using a smaller trowel and/or a much more springy (and expensive) trowel might help.
It might also be that you're trying to polish off before the plaster has set sufficiently.
A worn trowel is better than a new one... working the edges on a brick can help a bit. However in many cases, if you are getting lines, let it go off a bit more an then have another go (with a bit of extra water splashed on if needs be).
Marshalltown do a "permashape" trowel that is already "worn in" and the right shape / springiness. Silly money, but a joy to use in comparison to any other I have tried, and gets quite respectable results even in my relatively unskilled plastering hands.
+1 Marshalltown trowels work out of the box, even for a steam flid like me.
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