Shoutout to the guy who showed me the butter trowel trick for tight joints

I was fighting with mortar squeeze-out on a retaining wall in Detroit last month, and this old timer just handed me a butter trowel (the cheap plastic ones from the dollar store). It scoops out the excess clean in one pass without gouging the bricks - has anyone else tried this instead of a pointing trowel?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

webb.val2mo ago

Ha, I feel this. I tried the stiff mortar route once and ended up with joints so dry they looked like a bad haircut, all crumbly and uneven. Idk, I think my control issues just mean I need a butter trowel in my life - maybe it's just me but the cheap plastic ones are way easier to clean than metal.

7

sam5302mo ago

Why wouldn't you just mix the mortar a little stiffer in the first place so you don't have all that extra mess to clean up? Seems like fixing the problem instead of buying another tool.

4