This is something that many ‘professionals’ get wrong. Cleaning your tools regularly is a ‘must’ if you’re going to produce a ‘high’ standard of work. “Clean Tools are Productive Tools”.
It’s the same as the saying;- “Never trust a man with dirty shoes”. Not that I hold much alliance with that one, but it does serve to make a point. That point being; If you don’t have respect for your tools, do you have respect for your standard of work? Or even respect for yourself?
Dirty tools do ‘not’ make you necessarily a bad practitioner. It could be just that you’ve not been taught or mentored in a ‘Quality-Driven’ environment. So….Before we go any further….Please always remember to keep your tools ‘clean’ and ‘organised’. – In other words, not all thrown together in a bag or box so that you have to ‘rummage’ and potentially ‘damage’ your tools every time you look for something you need.
Your main tools will have ‘fine’ edges that are usualy sharp, therefore dangerous to amateur hands. So by keeping your tools ‘organised’, you keep yourself safe as well as others who might ‘pry’ into your toolbox/bag.
Plastering is a messy job for sure, and keeping your plastering tools clean can be a relentless job. But if you make it a habit ‘never’ to put a dirty tool down and leave it ‘without’ cleaning it off in fairly clean water, your tools should stay in a respectable state, and with that, comes pride in your work.
Your main hand trowels (Steel floats) are usually the hardest to keep clean. Because no matter how hard or often you clean your trowel, a layer of ‘plaster-mist’ builds up with the constant washing with dirty water from your splash bucket. A god reason to clean out your splash bucket regularly, but you can’t be spending your time relentlessly changing the water there.
At the end of the week, or twice a week. (Daily, if you have the right attitude). You should sit down with either a pumice-stone – roof-tile piece – masonry cutting blade or just a piece of wet-and-dry and clean your hand tools back to near-perfect condition. This not only gives you pride in your tools and work itself. It will also prevent sores and callouses affecting your hands. This happens when plaster builds up in different areas of the tools to the point where you don’t even notice your skin being rubbed sore until it’s too late.
Well, I hope this gives you some indication as to WHY you should always keep your plastering tools clean and tidy.
Happy plastering ….. and don’t forget to comment or ask questions below.
Pete ……… PM Plastering.
Have a great day …..
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