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tools Archives - The Year of Mud

Oct 05
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Another Way to Make Chopped Straw

By Clay Plaster, Earthen Floor, Straw Bale Building, Light Clay Straw
Making Chopped Straw with a Lawnmower

Making chopped straw with a standard lawnmower

Chopped straw is an invaluable ingredient for clay plasters and earthen floors. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a drag to actually make the stuff if you don’t have the right tools or equipment. If you’re building a straw bale wall, you get the benefit of collecting the chopped straw once you shave your walls (which is commonly done with a weed whacker). But if you’re working on a different type of structure, you’ll have to find a way to specifically make the chopped straw.

The ol’ “weed whacker in a barrel” gets really old really quickly, and frankly isn’t that effective. If you don’t have a leaf mulcher or wood chipper, which are far more efficient, you can actually use a lawn mower with a bag attachment to chop all of your straw for plaster. Here’s how to do it.

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Nov 17
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Two Japanese Trowels For Sale

By Clay Plaster, Lime Plaster
Japanese Trowels for Sale

These 300mm rigid Japanese trowels are for sale

I have two Japanese trowels for sale, excellent for natural plaster work, whether it be clay or lime. These have seen almost no use, as can be seen in the included photos here. (I have a third, turns out three of these is too many!) It’s time to pass these on to another builder who will put these to work. Read ahead for more details if you’re interested!

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Nov 10
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Essential Plaster Tools: Japanese Trowels

By Lime Plaster, Hand Tools, Clay Plaster, Straw Bale Building
Plaster Tools: Japanese Trowels

Japanese trowels are some of the most prized for natural plaster work (image source: JapaneseTrowels.com)

April thinks I have a compulsion for Japanese tools. I think she may be on to something, but I’ve got a pretty good excuse. Very generally speaking, Japanese tools are often well designed and manufactured, and the plaster tools are not unlike the acclaimed kitchen knives and woodworking tools. Japanese trowels are made with a careful level of attention in an incredible assortment of sizes and shapes, and different types of steel depending on the purpose.

Clay and lime plaster traditions go way back in Japanese architecture, so the craftspeople and blacksmiths there have had quite a bit of time to develop highly refined tools for the work of spreading and smoothing plaster. Today, Japanese trowels are quite popular amongst folks doing natural plaster work all over the globe.

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Oct 13
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Useful Tools: Trombone Pressure Sprayer

By Lime Plaster, Cob Building, Clay Plaster
Hudson Pressure Sprayrer

The Hudson pressure sprayer is a great tool for working with natural plaster and cob

A pressure sprayer is an undoubtedly useful tool in the natural building realm, especially when working with cob or plaster. Sometimes a hose is way overkill, or simply not possible to rig up. A portable sprayer fills the void, and can be especially good when you want a lot of control. When you need to wet your walls down to lay up plaster, for example, it’s useful to have something that you can work with a certain amount of finesse, only spraying what you need and not saturating everything else in the process.

Over the years, I’ve burned through any number of pump-style pressure sprayers. You know the ones — the tools with the plastic tank and plastic handle that you pump for a minute, and then try to eek enough water out of the plastic nozzle before you have to pump again… annoying, to say the least. And usually pretty cheaply made.

However, I’ve been using this Hudson trombone sprayer for a couple of years now, and can vouch for it. It’s come in quite handy during all of the plaster work we’ve been doing lately.

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Jul 10
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Highs and Lows of Scaffolding

By Strawtron
Construction scaffolding

Shiny new scaffolding

You know what really sort of stinks? Working at heights. You know what is even worse than working at heights? Not having a good way of doing it safely. Last year, we borrowed scaffolding for a big chunk of the building season, but this year, we needed to find a new scaffolding option for our construction needs, which includes a lot of work high off the ground.

Turns out we ended up deciding to buy our own, since no one in the area has an adequate setup that can reach the heights we need. I dreaded having to buy our own set of scaffolding, but I think it was the right choice to make.

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