HOGARD 18" Pro Taping Knife | Premium Stainless Steel Blade with a Soft Grip | Best Drywall Taping Tool

Mid level DIYer here, and not very experienced with drywall finishing. I got this for final swipe on the middle of butt joints after laying down and tapering joint compound. Knowing it wouldn't leave ridges due to its width was comforting. This is fairly rigid, which is ideal. I dropped it on the concrete floor :( but it was only slightly bent in the corner. Didn't seem to affect the function. This is probably rigid because it is so short depth wise. So, it's probably not ideal for a lot of compound. However there is a little ridge to reduce movement of compound to the handle, which is helpful. Not sure what to do with this now that I'm finished with my 2200 square foot basement. Maybe sharpen it and use as a backup for home defense.

My Drywaller loves it easy to use and check for levelness

I have done a lot of DIY mudding over the years on new construction and repairs, but had not used anything bigger than my 12" blade. Our recently acquired 1918 Farmhouse had 7 rooms of wallpaper. Some with multiple layers. We stripped all of them and found that 6 of the 7 had never been painted. 105-year-old virgin walls. You can imagine the wallpaper covered some plaster issues. Surprisingly, not too bad, but I did want to skim coat and level some areas, particularly with the board and batten we planned in the dining room (see the realtor before and our after pictures). Using this 24" blade was very helpful, particularly in leveling. You'll need a strong hand for extended use and you'll want to keep your mud thin and spreadable. I use a spray bottle to keep the mud wet for spreading thin.

It’s very durable and I really like it for spreading mud because you can put a lot of pressure on the handle and it doesn’t bend or anything. It’s very nice.

I used it for canvas prepping, so probably not the usual lol, but definitely got the job done. It’s very easy to handle, comfortable. It’s easy to clean. Durable, + you can you it for anything!

I like the overall width but wish it was a little deeper blade. It works fine as is though. I apply my mud with a smaller blade (12” or 14” blade) first then skim over with this 24”blade to even/level out the mud. The 12” or 14” blades are deeper so hold more mud when applying on wall or ceiling.

Shipped in oversized box with zero damage to the box. Blade is bent on one end.

Used it between the baseboards and the flooring when painting and saved lots of time painting baseboards. The long blade was perfect for doing large areas at a time and saved me time from taping off the area. Took some practice, but after a while it worked effortlessly.I painted 1,200 sq ft of baseboards this way.