A putty knife is a versatile and useful hand tool that can be used to help with applying several filler materials such as wood filler, drywall compound and others. It can also be used as a scraping tool to remove residue as well as having several other uses.

Putty knives can be particularly useful when working with certain materials you would struggle to clean afterwards. With any putty knife, there are different blade sizes and handle materials, depending upon personal preference and the nature of the job.

What types of Putty Knives are there?

The putty knife blade is an important part of the tool, as this will determine the applications it is suitable for. There are three main blade types, which can be made of either plastic or metal and can be flexible or stiff.

A flexible blade is used for spreading soft material around, such as putty, plaster, caulk, or grout, whereas a stiff blade is specifically used to scrape materials away, such as wet plaster, wet grout, or other soft materials, and even harder materials like dried paint. Disposable putty knives are made from plastic and are normally used with materials that can be hard to remove from the blade afterwards.