That one guy who showed me how to mud a corner in 1997

I was 22, fresh off a job framing houses, and this older fella named Don took me under his wing on a site in Saskatoon. He watched me fight with a corner for 20 minutes, then just said 'you're working the knife, not the mud' and took over. Finished it clean in about 4 passes with a 6-inch blade. I still think about that whenever I hit a tricky inside corner. Any of you guys have a mentor moment that stuck with you like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

john_johnson7513h ago

Oh man, I gotta push back on this a little. Don's advice about "working the knife not the mud" sounds nice and all, but in practice it's just a clever way to say "I've been doing this so long it looks easy." I've seen guys who talk like that, and half the time they're just gatekeeping with a folksy saying. Fast forward to 2024 and I watched a drywaller on YouTube finish a corner in two passes with a 10-inch knife and a halogen light, no preaching needed. Plus, if Don was using a 6-inch blade for inside corners in 1997, that's a recipe for a fat mud ridge every time - you need a corner box or at least a 4-inch knife to get into the angle right. Mentors are great but sometimes they just teach you their old bad habits, you know?

jasons639h ago

Honestly you're not wrong. I had a similar thing with a guy named Hank who taught me to hang cabinets and he swore by shims for everything even leveling out a wobbly floor. Took me years to realize I could just scribe the base and cut it clean. And yeah that 6 inch blade for a corner sounds like a mess waiting to happen. I remember trying that trick on a site in Regina and ended up with so much extra mud I had to sand half of it off.