The moment I realized my taping knives were working against me

I always used a 6 inch knife for everything from mudding corners to flat finishing. Last week at the supply house a painter named Dave watched me struggle with a corner and said, buddy, that knife is for texture not corners. He handed me a 4 inch and a 10 inch and said use these. I tried it on a patch job at my house near Portland and the corners came out clean in half the time. Has anyone else been using the wrong size tool forever without realizing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

julia_patel23d ago

Oh man, this is totally me! I spent two years using a 6 inch knife for absolutely everything because I thought it was the all around size. I would fight with inside corners for an hour and get mad at the mud for not smoothing out right. A drywall guy at Home Depot finally told me I was making it way harder than it needed to be. Now I use a 4 inch for corners and an 8 inch for flats and I actually enjoy taping instead of dreading it. That 6 inch knife is still sitting in my toolbox collecting dust.

the_xena22d agoTop Commenter

Gotta call you out on that 6 inch knife gathering dust though. Put it to work on your second coat. The 6 inch is perfect for knocking down the ridges after your first pass with the 8 inch. I do my first coat with the 8, let it dry, then use the 6 to smooth out those high spots before the final skim. Makes the finish way cleaner and you don't have to sand as much.