Transferring the plaster to the hawk is probably the thing that stumps DIYers and beginners alike, but with a little organised practice this can be easily overcome.
Firstly, I’ll assume you have a board and stand from which to load your plaster onto. That you’ve mixed your plaster to a thick, creamy consistency, and are now ready to start pushing it up the wall.
Well, you may have jumped the gun a bit here. What you really need to do, is to mix up just a ‘very small’ amount of plaster first. (About One litre of water in a bucket, then mixed to the required consistency – Yoghurt). Put this onto your board and then wash out your bucket straight away.
You now need to take a small amount from the board onto your hawk by placing your hawk about one quarter of it’s face ‘under’ the board and almost touching it. Now slide your steel float (trowel) through the edge of your small pile of plaster so that you take about ‘one third’ of a trowel-full from the board, onto your hawk. OK, you’ve got it onto your hawk safely, now stand away from your board as you tilt the hawk towards you. (Probably at 40 degrees to your horizontal). Now push your trowel up the hawk as if to push the plaster off the other side while tilting the hawk further to the upright position in one slick, curved motion so that when your trowel leaves the hawk, the plaster is now on your trowel.
Hold your hawk normally now while tilting your trowel full of plaster on it’s end. Nose up, tail down. The plaster will now slide down the trowel blade back onto your hawk where it first started. Repeat this action as many times as possible, trying to do it just a little bit faster each time. Do not limit the amount of times you do this as repetition becomes habit, and habit becomes ‘natural’.
As you grow more confident, take just a little bit more plaster off of your board and add it to the amount already on your hawk. Keep doing this until your plaster starts to stiffen. (Probably about 30 – 45 minutes if you’re lucky).
Don’t let it get too firm or it will be a nightmare to clean your tools afterwards. Always keep your tools as clean as possible at all times. It’s an important lesson to learn, and will benefit you no end to adopt ‘good habits’ from the OFF.
Throw your stiffening plaster away. Don’t try to use it, even for patching, as it will be overworked and could crumble later when it dries out properly.
If you’re still not too confident using the hawk and trowel, repeat this lesson as often as possible until it becomes second nature.
We’ll get onto putting your plaster up the walls in a later post.
In the meantime please comment or ask questions below.
Pete ………… PM Plastering.
Have a great day …..
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