In article ,
John Rumm writes:
While on this subject, a friend asked me to order him on of these the
other day:

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...54589&ts=75808

It looked like a lot of money to pay for a trowel, but having seen it I
can see the attraction.

Aside from being stainless, the edges are pre-ground, there are no sharp
corners, and both axis have a very slight curvature to them. Very nice -
made my plain cheap and nasty Wicks trowel look just that! (I think I
will see if I can borrow it for the next batch of plastering I need to do)

It's probably very good. Marshalltown are the bee's knees for
trowels anyway, but unless you're a professional, you might
not notice the difference, except in this case for it being
pre-worn-in. There isn't supposed to be any curvature along
the long axis -- the long bracing support is supposed to
prevent that (often it's shorter on cheaper trowels which
means the edge does curve when you press on it and you
don't get a perfectly flat sweep). During the wearing in,
the steel develops a better spring curvature across the short
axis, although stainless steel may behave differently in this
respect. It's not clear to me how a stainless steel trowel
would behave -- traditionally they are high carbon sprung
steel and that could make quite a difference.

--
Andrew Gabriel