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My trowel from 1998 finally wore down to a nub and I can't find another one like it
I was finishing a garage slab out in Mesa two weeks ago when my old wooden-handle trowel just quit on me. The steel had worn down to almost nothing after all these years, and the edge was rounded so bad it was basically a butter knife by then. I bought that thing back in 1998 when I first got into the trade, paid maybe $18 for it at a supply yard that isn't even there anymore. My foreman back then told me to break it in slow, work the edges on soft mud first, and that trowel would fit my hand like a glove. He was right. These new ones have gel grips and fancy angles, and I've gone through three in the past few months trying to replace it. Nothing feels right, the balance is off, and I keep catching myself reaching for the old one out of habit even though it's useless now. Has anyone else held onto a tool way past its prime because nothing new measures up? What did you do when it finally gave out?
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briancampbell11d ago
That line about reaching for the old one out of habit hits home, because the real problem here isn't the trowel, it's your muscle memory. Your hand learned that tool over 25 years of work, so no new trowel will feel right for months no matter how good it is. The fix is picking one replacement and using it on nothing but soft mud for a few weeks, same as your foreman told you back in 98, because the break in period is what makes it fit, not the tool itself.
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