My trowel snapped right in the middle of a unit at the Cahokia dig

It was a cheap one from a hardware store, and the blade just sheared off at the handle last Tuesday. I had to finish the afternoon's work with a mason's pointing tool I borrowed from a colleague. Anyone have a brand of trowel that can actually handle compacted clay?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevinc8420d ago

Try heating the clay with a small propane torch before you trowel it.

karen_allen120d ago

Heating clay with a propane torch sounds like a recipe for disaster. That stuff can hold moisture and might crack or even explode from the sudden heat. I've seen bricks shatter in a campfire from trapped steam. You'd end up with a mess of broken pieces instead of a smooth surface.

shanegibson15d ago

My uncle tried something like that with a flower pot back in 2012, and it just popped. Karen is totally right about the steam pressure. It's like @kevinc84's advice skips the whole drying process, which is a common thing now. People want to skip to the result without the boring, careful steps in the middle. You see it with everything from cooking to fixing cars, rushing just makes a bigger mess.