The day my mudding knife took a dive off a 12-foot ladder

Last Tuesday was shaping up to be a normal day on a basement finishing job in Beaverton. I was up on a 12-foot ladder finishing the second coat on a vaulted ceiling when my brand new 12-inch stainless steel knife slipped right out of my grip. It clattered down and landed flat on a bucket of clean mixing water, sending a splash all over the fresh tape underneath. I had to scramble down, wipe everything dry with rags, and redo a 4-foot section of corner tape that got soaked. The worst part was that perfect smooth finish I had going on the ceiling - it had drips and texture issues from the sudden stop and restart. Took me an extra two hours to sand and touch up that one spot to match the rest. Has anyone else had a tool drop at the worst possible moment and make a huge mess of their work? What did you do to fix it fast?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena_jackson21d ago

Oh man, that's rough. One thing nobody talks about is how a fresh drop like that can mess with your knife's balance. I had a trowel take a header off a scaffold once and it landed on the handle just right. After that, the weight felt off, like it was pulling to one side when I tried to float a joint. I ended up having to send it back to the manufacturer because the tang got bent. You might want to check if yours still feels the same in your hand before your next job.

andrew69321d ago

You're mixing up two different types of tools here. A trowel and a knife have very different tangs, you know? Trowels usually have a full tang that runs all the way through the handle, but drywall knives (especially the wider ones) often have a shorter tang that just sticks into a molded plastic handle. So dropping a knife on the handle isn't going to bend a tang the same way it would a trowel. The real issue with a fresh drop is more about checking the blade edge for chips or dings, and making sure the handle didn't crack where it meets the steel. That's where you're more likely to see problems with balance.