Talk:Putty knife

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Hmm... This isn't a putty knife, this is: http://www.toolstation.com/images/library/stock/webbig/42084.jpg

It's called a putty knife because it's used to properly put putty around a pane of glass. The tool in the article is a scraper blade, used for scraping paint and wallpaper, not for puttying. Madness.

-previous comment added 10:59, 3 February 2008 by 77.102.186.115

Good point you make; the 'pedia could use a freely licensed image like that. But actually, the knives in the pic are not scrapers, but spreaders. Superficially similar, scrapers have a stiffer blade and often a beveled front edge. Card scrapers are a different critter, of course. __Just plain Bill (talk) 13:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the above comment - the image does not show a putty knife or knives. These are drywall knives. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.241.131.120 (talk) 22:14, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Not really drywall knives, those two get used for almost everything but. Give me a day or so, and I'll put up a pic of some drywall knives, useful for joint taping and skim-coating. Ace Hardware seems to think the ones in the existing pic are putty knives. I haven't seen a window glazed with putty around the edges lately... but the first comment with the toolstation link is correct about the knife best used for that job. __Just plain Bill (talk) 04:04, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi, OP here. Yeah, there seems to be a lot of confusion on what various handtools are called! Googling "putty knife" shows many different tools refferred to as such. If I'd used a scraper (or filler or whatever) to putty a pane of glass when I was an apprentice decorator, I would have been in trouble... It needs to be made clear that a putty knife is that tool from the link I posted, and that it is intended to be used to putty round panes of glass. 77.102.186.115 (talk) 19:26, 5 February 2008 (UTC)Steve

OK, added a pic of a proper putty knife, and some text to clarify it. __Just plain Bill (talk) 14:35, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Here in London most of the houses are old and have single glazed puttyed windows, so the putty knife is a current tool for the forseable future. the angled one showen is correct ( Harris have unfortunatly changed the shape( the new shape prevents making the corner corectly) in there latest creation indicating that even manufacturas are losing touch with reality. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alex Stowell86.9.159.1 (talk) 10:27, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

[A spackle knife - Which language?]

"A spackle knife (called a scraper in British English, also known as a spatula in American English) is also commonly called a "putty knife"" If british english it is called a scraper and American English a putty knife then what type of English is a spackle knife? Australian? NZ?

Pictured tools.

The wide bladed tool with the straight edge is a paint stripper, a similar tool with a serrated edge is used strip wallpaper. I know this because I worked for L.G. Harris of Bromsgrove for almost five years and saw thousands of them produced. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.205.242.43 (talk) 18:22, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

I have had both of those tools (the ones in the photo) in my hands. Their flexible blades would be ill suited to stripping paint, although they would serve in a pinch. Just plain Bill (talk) 20:00, 16 March 2018 (UTC)