The Right Tool for the Job

It has been said that for every job there is a tool. That is the case with the tools used to apply the product commercially known as Venetian plaster. At a seminar hosted by FirenzeColor-Marmorino held several months ago on Venetian plaster, there was an old plasterer that looked at these trowels and said, "what are these things?" He couldn't understand their shape. He could not understand why they were so flexible and why the ends were curved. In his mind, he would prefer to use the tools he used all his life in plastering with this Venetian plaster product.

In a conversation with him recently he sounded like it changed man. Now he was a believer! He loved these Venetian plaster trowels designed for use with FirenzeColor-Marmorino. Although he mentioned he couldn't use them with regular plaster, he said they were well suited for our product. Well he's right, because our product is not traditional plaster. Venetian plaster is a marble product with a lime base that needs to be worked very gently. With traditional plastering, you are required to put on a lot of material very quickly and a rigid style trowel is desirable, whereas with FirenzeColor-Marmorino, a flexible trowel is required.

No one before us had asked for a trowel like the one we needed. And the reason is simple; we were the first and still are today the only ones who produce a full mineral product. If you work with synthetic or half-synthetic material you do not need trowels like ours, but simple stainless steel is sufficient. For that kind of material, it is also important that the trowels are very rigid.

Development of Marmorino Trowel

In further speaking with this plasterer from New Castle, Pennsylvania, he mentioned that he also appreciated our stainless steel trowels in that when working the FirenzeColor-Marmorino he did not get dark stripes. Now what did he mean by that? In a lot of trowels these days if there is any rust on the trowel or the steel isn't of good quality it can leave discoloration on your wall. This never occurs with the Venetian Plaster trowels distributed by the Alta Building Materials in Oakland, California and Firenze Enterprises of Miami. If you accidentally leave these trowels in water, or leave these trowels with material drying on them the blade will not discolour. The reason for this is not found by looking at the trowel, the reason is found in what you can't see on the trowel. The manufacturer tempers the sheet steel in the raw material stage and at the trowel factory when they form the trowels, they temper them again. It is this procedure that takes the rigidity from the blade and they become flexible as t he end product. Then they are polished. Unfortunately, this is a delicate process and expensive because it is done by hand.

Now the shape of the trowel raises a lot of eyebrows because it is in the shape of a trapezoid. If you see an old workman's trowel in Italy, it starts off in a rectangular shape and after several years it starts taking a trapezoid shape, this is because you work on the full length of the blade the whole time. Many craftsmen in Italy would prefer to work with old trowels they inherited, as opposed to working with a new tool because it actually becomes better with age. For this reason, it was decided in a joint effort with FirenzeColor-Marmorino and the manufacturer of the trowels in Europe to design the Venetian plaster trowel in this shape to begin with. One of the most experienced toolmakers in Europe manufactured this trowel. The only thing that could not be manufactured was the worn edge on the blade that has to come over time with use. The round corners are to protect the finished Marmorino.

Now the last, but not least thing about these special trowels is the handle assembly. It is lightweight and the manufacturing procedure holds an international patent. It also offers a lifetime warrantee against breaking, as long as it is not forcibly abused. The handgrip is made of wood. This also makes it more expensive, but the craftsmen appreciate it because when using it is extremely comfortable to hold.

What was produced was a very useful and attractive trowel. Others in this field (our competitors) copied this trowel with the exception of using "normal" stainless steel (without knowing the reasons for this) simply because they liked the look of our trowels. But that is a complement to the trowels themselves.

But to complete the FirenzeColor-Marmorino we use a smaller trowel, which never touches the raw product. At just the right time this "polishing trowel" is worked over the product to give it that lustrous shine and feel of the marble product. This is important because in its natural state marble is not polished. Yes, for every job there is the right tool.