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Leather Rose Trowel

23K views 95 replies 21 participants last post by  brickhook 
#1 ·
Ok , so I started out with the Marshalltown dura soft hated them it makes my hand hurt , i used a plastic handle M-Town it was a lot better but a couple months ago i bought my first Rose ( love it ) with a leather handle . The leather feels kind of weird and looks like it is dry , How do you guys maintain your leather handles ? Also would you recommend a plastic handle Rose Trowel ?

Trowel Tool


- my leather rose brand new

Tobacco products Material property


- a plastic handle rose that caught my eye ( feels good too)
 
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#4 ·
You'll be hard pressed to beat that rose up too much in your lifetime and your skin oils alone go a long way at preventing the leather handle from wearing out.

If you must a little extra fancy beef tallow will help seal the deal...Smiling mink oil that is :whistling

I'm always proud to mention those Rose trowels are still made right around the corner from me in Sharon Hill PA. Best trowel ever made hands down :thumbup:
 
#5 ·
I used to used the leather handle one all the time. Eventually the leather will end up unraveling or the wood on the end will start to lose corners. Ive been through maybe 10 -12 of them.

The last few have been the red marsheltowns.

That plasic handle rose is no good. Look how far down the angle is on the blade.
 
#10 ·
Damn J, you're blowing through the leather every 2/3 years? Never seen anybody do that in my life...I think you're fibbing :laughing:

I still have 2 wood handle, 10.5 narrow London, I won back in towel trade school in the early 80's during a competition - still original handles and I still use them. In addition, Rose makes replacement handles for all their forged shanks so you really never have to throw them away.

Discalimer; I got oodles of them and rotate them pretty well, but I'll still argue it's the best trowel ever made and I've never had a reason to throw one out.

Now don't be fibbing us saying that you're going through the shanks and blades too :no: cause you'll definitely be blowing your cover ;)

I might soon be shooting a video tour of the small plant,...the only and original one, which is cool as hell. Totally a step back in time of gargantuan machinery and hand honed techniques. Some of the equipment I hear dates back to the late 1700's at the companies original founding.

Kraft bought them out, but W.Rose has never changed. Here a link to the many shapes and sizes,... and of course replacement handles if need be.

http://www.krafttool.com/catalog.aspx?cat=27&subcat=35
 
#6 ·
Hands down the leather handle rose trowel. Yes I have owned a few of them, been doing this 30 years and have only needed a few. If taken care of they will last, yes blades will wear down or even crack if used as dur-o-wall cutter ( I know this from trying it a few times). I have never "oiled" or coated the handle. The real handle saver for myself and other masons, has been to buy a rubber cane tip (walking cane) maybe from Walgreens or any medical supply store, then slip on the end of the trowel handle and tap away on masonry products with confidence
 
#8 ·
masonkable said:
Hands down the leather handle rose trowel. Yes I have owned a few of them, been doing this 30 years and have only needed a few. If taken care of they will last, yes blades will wear down or even crack if used as dur-o-wall cutter ( I know this from trying it a few times). I have never "oiled" or coated the handle. The real handle saver for myself and other masons, has been to buy a rubber cane tip (walking cane) maybe from Walgreens or any medical supply store, then slip on the end of the trowel handle and tap away on masonry products with confidence
awesome , i use one on my rose as well i never could find them because we call them silencers Thanks
 
#11 ·
superseal said:
Damn J, you're blowing through the leather every 2/3 years? Never seen anybody do that in my life...I think you're fibbing :laughing: I still have 2 wood handle, 10.5 narrow London, I won back in towel trade school in the early 80's during a competition - still original handles and I still use them. In addition, Rose makes replacement handles for all their forged shanks so you really never have to throw them away. Discalimer; I got oodles of them and rotate them pretty well, but I'll still argue it's the best trowel ever made and I've never had a reason to throw one out. Now don't be fibbing us saying that you're going through the shanks and blades too :no: cause you'll definitely be blowing your cover ;) I might soon be shooting a video tour of the small plant,...the only and original one, which is cool as hell. Totally a step back in time of gargantuan machinery and hand honed techniques. Some of the equipment I hear dates back to the late 1700's at the companies original founding. Kraft bought them out, but W.Rose has never changed. Here a link to the many shapes and sizes,... and of course replacement handles if need be. http://www.krafttool.com/catalog.aspx?cat=27&subcat=35
that would be cool to see the plant M-Town is good but i like Rose a lot more and glad to know they are still made in the US
 
#20 ·
The lift of a trowel handle (angle of blade) is not one size fits all.I have old Bon Tool catalogs (back before they marketed their own trowels) and both M.T. and Rose offered "high set or low set" handle angles. S.S. will more than likely have info. on that.

I own and believe both M.T. and Rose make great trowels,I own both never had a problem with either. Am happy they are still made in States.


As far as handles go, 99% of what I buy are wood,a couple of duct tape wraps and I'M good to go. I do own one Rose with a blue handle,came with it,works just fine in my book.
 
#18 ·
I am also a fan of Rose. American made and local to me. Hands down the best trowels in my opinion. But since Kraft purchased them I have noticed variations in quality. Particularly in the blade.

For you guys that do not like the lift on the Rose trowels, they do make a low lift design. I switched to a low lift trowel about 5 years ago and it greatly reduced wrist pain.
 
#21 ·
So far I haven't used a full mud board with the rose trowel. I started a job with it but the brick were a bit awkward to lay so the new trowel just wasn't putting the mud where i wanted it and I kept bumping the brick with the trowel, mud was slopping around. Went back to my old trowel even though i cracked the blade and things were much better.

I think the rose WILL be much better when laying brick in the usual position, between knee and belly height
 
#23 ·
You guys keep trowels for more then a year? I bought a MT in July or Aug. and the black plastic where your index finger is is cracked and splintered already. Im about to go buy another one. I hardly ever get more then a year out of a trowel.

I never got more then a year or 18 months out of the exact 2 foot levels either. Since switching to Stabilla im on 25-30 months, so far and its going great. Truly impressive.
 
#25 ·
You guys keep trowels for more then a year? I bought a MT in July or Aug. and the black plastic where your index finger is is cracked and splintered already. Im about to go buy another one. I hardly ever get more then a year out of a trowel.
I wondered about that too, one of the dura-soft MT's will last me about nine months...probably less if I'm not laying rock. Of course I do the massively taboo task of cutting brick with my trowel but that isn't what wears them out. If I used a the same trowel for over a year a, 10" trowel would be 7" long.

I used to use the plastic handle Rose's just because that was what I grew up using. The end of the handle would wear out quickly and they also gave me callouses real bad, to the point they were painful. I am sold on the Dura-soft's, doubt I'll ever use anything else. The ends last forever and no more callouses.

Amazing how many different worlds there are to this craft.
 
#31 ·
I've only replaced one handle, put a new plastic one on an old Rose....you boil it up to soften it.....set it and forget it. Beautiful. I've never used wood or leather as replacement though.......

Rose is the gold standard, but I bought a Bon stainless online, and I absolutely love it....

For me, the handle material is secondary, as I have always chosen my trowels by the steel.......even in a box of 12 new Roses, the flex will vary quite a bit.......I love the ones with a lot of 'give'........
 
#29 ·
I am using empire levels now. I was blowing through wooden levels like crazy. tried one of the Empire blue box levels I had it 2 years no issues. I got to try out their "mason pack" tools. they sent me out a black composite level that I like so far only complaint is its heavy. My wooden levels were always splitten and separating. they were never very accurate after about a year.
 
#30 ·
I usually get about 3-4 years out of a Rose trowel. The majority of the ones I have replaced were due to shattering the blade where it meets the shank. Most times from smacking it against something because I didn't clean it enough the day before. Also replaced a couple because I cracked the tip tightening a conduit coupling because the electricians were nowhere to be found :whistling

I use crick levels. I am averaging about 3 years with them also. If I took better care of them I'm sure I could get another year or two on top of that. If you are having issues with wooden levels delaminating it is most likely because you got them wet frequently with out drying them. Or not keeping them oiled.
 
#40 ·
I replaced a leather handled Marshalltown, my first trowel. I just blobbed some PL in the hole and jammed the new one on. By morning it was good to go. It was 10 years old when the handle fell off, that was 5 years ago, it's my mixer trowel now. I'm like NJ, I crack the blade at the shank from smacking it on something (usually concrete) when I didn't clean it well the day before. Almost always in the late fall on a cold morning.

My last trowel was a Goldblatt? I actually liked it well enough, took a couple days though.

My best level was my first 4' Got it when I was just starting out and piss poor. $20 for a Johnson 2'&4' at Walmart of all places. The 2' lasted 3 or 4 months and it was out of level, but that 4' got dropped 20', smashed by my hammer, kicked over and stepped on probably 100 times and I would check it every week or so and it was ALWAYS bang on. Then I helped out a friend in a subdivision and misplaced it. Serves me right I guess. Now I have a crappy Stanley...I hate it, but it works
 
#49 ·
I do the same with cheap big box trowels,I found I can make a bucket trowel more to my liking then the ones sold as such. The store bought ones are usually a straight cut. Being right handed, I cut the end on a angle,right to left,keeps hand from scraping side of bucket. I imagine a left hander would benefit from the opposite angle.
 
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