Description
The Economy Artist Palette Knife is a steel blade in a wooden handle and was made for spreading and mixing paint. We use them for spreading and manipulating thinset mortar and mosaic adhesives. Note that thinset, grout, and other concrete products are mildly caustic and therefore corrosive to steel and other metals. What this means is that you should take extra care to clean and dry your knives after use and not let them soak overnight even though you are worn out from a full day in the studio. You should also be prepared for the tools to rust and wear out over time, much sooner than ordinary trowels and putty knives, which are made of thicker steel. All that being said, many tools in the studio and workshop have a limited working life and yet are indispensable. The palette knife is extremely useful for detailed mosaic work, especially when pressing non-flat found objects such as seashells and artifacts into thinset mortar.
Economy Artist Palette Knife
- Steel blade mounted in a wooden handle
- approximately 8 inches in length
- subject to rusting by mortars and grouts
Safety
The blade is not sharpened in the manner of ordinary knives, but it is a thin pieces of steel that is sharp enough to cut if handled carelessly.
How To Make Mosaics
For more advice on designing your mosaic project or mounting, cutting, and grouting tile, please see our page of Mosaic Frequently Asked Questions or our Mosaic Information Guide, which lists instructional pages described by topic. We also post new articles about making mosaics at our How to Mosaic Blog.
