Had a talk with an old timer at the supply house that changed how I tape

I was grabbing some mud and tape at the Ajax Supply down on 4th Street here in Pittsburgh last Tuesday. This old guy probably in his late 60s sees me loading up a flat box and he just goes 'you're fighting the corner, not riding it.' At first I thought he was just making small talk, but he walked me over to the back room and showed me how he wets his knife before every single pass on a inside corner. He said the water lets the paper seat without bubbles and you don't get that crunch sound. I tried it on a job that afternoon and it felt totally different - the tape laid down flat with no fight at all. I never really thought about how much pressure I was putting on the tape instead of letting the mud carry it. Has anyone else picked up a weird trick from some random guy at the yard that actually worked?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucast819d ago

My uncle was a taper in Buffalo for 35 years and he always said the same thing about wetting the knife. He told me once that the water creates a little slip layer so the paper can find its own spot instead of you jamming it in there. The crunch sound is the paper fighting the dry compound, that's a dead giveaway you are pushing too hard. I read something in a trade magazine years ago about keeping a damp sponge nearby for the same reason, to keep your knife slick. It is amazing the little things the old heads figured out that nobody writes down in the manuals.

elliot_roberts9d ago

And it's funny how many trades have tricks like that, @lucast81, stuff that just gets passed down by word of mouth.

nina_hall489d ago

Is it really that big of a deal though? I mean, wetting the knife or not, the drywall mud is gonna end up in the same spot eventually. People act like this is some secret ritual passed down from the gods when it's just a preference. Half the time I think the "old heads" just repeat stuff because it sounds mysterious and they like feeling like they know something you don't. I've hung plenty of drywall with a totally dry knife and it turned out fine. Maybe some guys overthink this stuff way more than needed.