# W.rose brick trowels standard shank or low lift shank.?



## patrick grey (Jun 13, 2013)

I just got some w.rose brick trowels. a friend of mine got them for me on a recent visit to the u.s. I'm in Ireland and it,s all marshalltown over here.one is a wide London 11 inch with wood handle the other is a Philly 11.5 inch also wood Handle. according to the Kraft tools website they are both standard shank trowels even though when you size them up together the handle angles are different ,the shank on the Philly is laying back greater than 90 degrees in relation to the Blade while the shank on the wide London is at 90 degrees to the blade.of the 2 the handle angle on the wide London is more comfortable(handle angle is lower) in fact I really like it lovely trowel.the Philly will take a bit of getting used to although it would be easy enough to sort the handle angle.i know they also make low lift trowels. when I got the trowels I thought the London was a low lift shank and the Philly was a standard shank trowel until I checked the m.p.n on the website.whats the low lift shank ones like to use and has anyone found any varince in tha handle angles of them .thanks guys


----------



## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Here's a little history on W. Rose if you're interested...I also find shank angles vary from trowel to trowel as well when you line them up. I've always attributed it to the way they're made.

My fav is the narrow London blade (11.5) with leather or wood...and even though I live near Philly, I can't stand the Philly trowel design.


----------



## jb4211 (Jul 13, 2010)

Wait a phucking minute!!!!! Dave, is that rust I see????


----------



## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Just a tad :laughing:

They're not stainless like my boots :whistling


----------



## socalmason (Nov 6, 2013)

My go to trowel is the leather handle london 11.5 in although its about 11 inches now something about it makes me reach for it more than any of my marshalltown


----------



## stonecutter (May 13, 2010)

I like the 10 or 11 w/leather handle and low lift personally. But any rose is a great trowel.


----------



## patrick grey (Jun 13, 2013)

most of the masons over here would use a marshalltown wide london eleven inch with the red softgrip handle ,from looking at youtube videos the u.k guys seem to prefer the marshalltown philadelphia.and the u.s.a masons seem to prefer the narrow londons.apart from cheap trowels the only brand the building supply places over here stock is marshalltown.


----------



## patrick grey (Jun 13, 2013)

superseal said:


> Here's a little history on W. Rose if you're interested...I also find shank angles vary from trowel to trowel as well when you line them up. I've always attributed it to the way they're made.
> 
> My fav is the narrow London blade (11.5) with leather or wood...and even though I live near Philly, I can't stand the Philly trowel design.


thanks . in the first picture the trowel on the top right looks to have the same handle angle as the philly i have


----------



## patrick grey (Jun 13, 2013)

stonecutter said:


> I like the 10 or 11 w/leather handle and low lift personally. But any rose is a great trowel.


If you can could you post a picture of the low lift w.rose.thanks


----------



## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

For me, I have both M.T. and Rose trowels,all in London pattern. I feel both make an excellent trowel. Most are narrow with the few wide used only for block. As far as the lift of the handle,if I lay everything at sweet spot (waist high ) the angle does not jump off the page at me. When work is at chest height or higher (which I try to avoid for numerous reasons) then a low lift is easier on my wrist.


----------



## Kniggit (Apr 11, 2013)

Here is a pic of Rose's version of the MT Dura-soft


----------



## patrick grey (Jun 13, 2013)

fjn said:


> For me, I have both M.T. and Rose trowels,all in London pattern. I feel both make an excellent trowel. Most are narrow with the few wide used only for block. As far as the lift of the handle,if I lay everything at sweet spot (waist high ) the angle does not jump off the page at me. When work is at chest height or higher (which I try to avoid for numerous reasons) then a low lift is easier on my wrist.


The second I picked both trowels up I could feel the difference.the wide London felt really comfortable, the Philly felt gammy in the hand.as I said I thought the wide London was a low lift shank and the Philly was a standard shank.still can't understand why there so different . I'll try and post some pictures.i also got a Bon tools trowel 13 inch leather handle narrow london stainless steel ,I really like it,although i noticed its welded and not one piece forged.


----------



## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

I have a low lift (I think) rose philly and I like it OK. I'm not really a brick or block guy (although i do both a reasonable amount of time)so a trowel isn't super important to me but I've been finding that for whatever reason the knuckles of my hand have been hurting since I've been using it if I'm laying a lot in a day. Maybe just coincidence. Never had any wrist problems. The knuckles i'm guessing are more related to grip width than blade angle, but i don't know. 

It took me a while to get used to the low lift...for the 1st week or so I was knocking fresh material every now and again becuase my hand wasn't used to where the blade "should" be


----------



## patrick grey (Jun 13, 2013)

dom-mas said:


> I have a low lift (I think) rose philly and I like it OK. I'm not really a brick or block guy (although i do both a reasonable amount of time)so a trowel isn't super important to me but I've been finding that for whatever reason the knuckles of my hand have been hurting since I've been using it if I'm laying a lot in a day. Maybe just coincidence. Never had any wrist problems. The knuckles i'm guessing are more related to grip width than blade angle, but i don't know.
> 
> It took me a while to get used to the low lift...for the 1st week or so I was knocking fresh material every now and again becuase my hand wasn't used to where the blade "should" be


to be honest i dont really know whats going on ,you would imagine if you purchase 2 trowels and the m.p.n says they are standard shank then the angle of the handles should be both the same.regarding feeling pain from useing trowels be it in the shoulder, wrist or elbow ,in mainland europe the prefered way is to lay brick with the pick and dip method and there longest trowels would be no longer than 8inchs, so your not lifting large amounts of mortar in one go which lessens the strain on the joints ,a lot of there trowels also have swan necks which further lessens the strain .i have a small collection of trowels from various european countrys ill post some pictures.


----------



## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

patrick grey said:


> to be honest i dont really know whats going on ,you would imagine if you purchase 2 trowels and the m.p.n says they are standard shank then the angle of the handles should be both the same.regarding feeling pain from useing trowels be it in the shoulder, wrist or elbow ,in mainland europe the prefered way is to lay brick with the pick and dip method and there longest trowels would be no longer than 8inchs, so your not lifting large amounts of mortar in one go which lessens the strain on the joints ,a lot of there trowels also have swan necks which further lessens the strain .i have a small collection of trowels from various european countrys ill post some pictures.





One of the reasons for the discrepancy between Europe and America regarding P&D vs. stringing or throwing the bed joint is because both Countries have very pronounced views on laying frog up or frog down. We have touched on that subject several times on CT. While I agree whole heartedly that frogs must be completely filled with mud,there are methods to accomplish that 100% of the time laying frog down. For every spec. coming out of Europe mandating frog up,the U.S. has them mandating frog down.


----------



## JBM (Mar 31, 2011)

The water puddling in the frog if it were up makes a lot of sense. Frog down.


----------



## S.U.M (Apr 17, 2013)

*W.rose Brick Trowels Standard Shank Or Low Lift Shank.?*

"I'm in Ireland and it,s all marshalltown over" 

Marshaltown all the way but then again I'm Irish, when serving my time I had Marshaltown with a see through red handle, almost a hard plastic is the best way to describe it, total pos, when it got wet it was slippy as hell.
I have 2 other brickies working for me and they are Marshaltown guys. And irish.

Frog down.


----------



## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

S.U.M said:


> Frog down.




Frog down,gets a thumbs up from me.:thumbsup::laughing:


----------

