Saw a guy use a magic trowel at a job site in Denver and it changed my finish game

I was working a sidewalk pour last Tuesday over by the old courthouse and this older finisher pulls out this beat up trowel that looked like it had been through a war. He did his final passes with it and the surface came out glass smooth without any of the chatter marks I usually fight with. I asked him what kind of trowel it was and he just said it's a 36 inch magnesium with the edges worn down from years of use. So I grabbed an old trowel from my truck and spent an hour sanding the edges down with 80 grit paper. Next day I tried it on a garage apron and the finish was way better than anything I ever got with a brand new trowel. Has anyone else ever filed or sanded down their trowel edges to get that smooth float effect?

2 comments

2 Comments

lopez.brooke25d agoMost Upvoted

Took an old beat up trowel from my uncle's garage and hit it with a bastard file for about twenty minutes. The trick is you gotta not take too much off or it'll dig in. I noticed something though after I did it to all my trowels. The concrete actually releases off the worn edge easier when you're finishing. New trowels with sharp edges want to stick and pull, that's what causes the tearing. Once those edges get rounded over and polished from sanding it's like the concrete just glides off. I think that's the real secret nobody talks about, not just the smooth finish. It's about control and not fighting your tool.

the_eva25d ago

Oh, so now I gotta bust out the sandpaper and treat my trowel like a pet project? Guess my perfectly good new one is officially trash now.