My brother told me to use a cheap putty knife for a drywall patch and it was a disaster

He swore up and down that a five dollar tool from the big box store would work just fine for a small hole in my bedroom wall. In my experience, you get what you pay for. I tried to smooth the joint compound with that flimsy thing, and it just flexed and left ridges everywhere. After three attempts at sanding it down, the patch looked worse than the original hole. I ended up having to cut out a bigger section and start over, this time with a proper six inch taping knife. It cost me an extra weekend and about forty bucks in materials to fix my fix. Has anyone else had a simple tool totally ruin a project?

2 comments

2 Comments

nora_chen6h ago

Oh man, that's the worst. I mean, a cheap putty knife is basically a metal spatula. It bends if you look at it wrong. I tried using one to scrape paint once and the corner dug right into the wood. For drywall, you really need that stiff blade to press the mud flat. It's like trying to spread cold butter with a piece of cardboard.

shah.zara1h ago

Wait, can you even use a taping knife for a small patch? I thought those wide blades were for seams, and a stiff 3-inch putty knife was the right call for filling holes. Maybe the real issue was the metal being too thin, not the tool type?