I finally tried a 10 inch taping knife on a big ceiling job in Boise

I was doing a full basement finish and normally stick with a 6 inch knife for ceilings, but my buddy said to go bigger. The 10 inch let me lay down a much wider bed of mud in one pass, and it actually went on smoother with less pressure. I finished the whole 800 square foot ceiling a full hour faster than I estimated. Has anyone else switched up their knife size for ceilings and seen a real time save?

3 comments

3 Comments

masonbell1mo ago

You finished an hour faster but how was the cleanup? For me, a bigger knife just means more mud to scrape off the blade constantly. That extra width gets heavy on your wrist after a while too. I tried a 12 inch once and went right back to my 8. The speed on the spread isn't worth the extra work keeping the knife clean.

west.anna1mo ago

So when you say it went on smoother, was that because the mud itself was mixed differently? Or is the bigger blade just better at hiding your arm's natural wiggle on a long reach?

jakeb251mo ago

Wait you did 800 square feet with a 12 inch and went back to an 8? That's wild to me. I can't imagine going smaller after feeling how fast the 10 inch moves through a ceiling. You must have wrists of steel or something because my arm was dead after the first 300 feet but the time save was totally worth it.