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Neighbor gave me a 30 year old trowel and it changed my concrete game
My neighbor Art, this retired mason who's like 80 something, saw me fighting with a bag of quickcrete in my driveway last Saturday and just walked over. He didn't say much, just handed me this beat up old finishing trowel with a wooden handle that's all smooth from years of use. I was using this cheap 12 dollar thing from the home center that kept flexing weird. He told me to lay off the water and just work it slow, let the cream come up natural. I followed what he said and the slab I poured for my grill pad came out flat and smooth on the first try. Never had a pour look that clean before. Got me wondering if anyone else has gotten a random tool handed down from a neighbor that just worked way better than anything new?
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evaallen14d ago
Old tools have better steel. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
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kevin_harris7814d ago
You ever try sharpening a modern chisel and it just won't hold an edge worth a damn? I had this old Stanley plane from the 1950s my grandpa left me, and that blade would stay sharp through like 20 board feet of oak. The new ones I bought from the big box store get dull halfway through a single project. I finally gave up and started hitting estate sales for old sockets and wrenches. Found a set of Craftsman wrenches from the 70s and they fit bolts perfectly, no slipping. The steel in those old tools was forged different, way less brittle than the cheap cast stuff now. It's not nostalgia, it's just better metal.
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