Many caulkers tool with kitchen spoons bent to suit a joint width, or with purpose-made steel and plastic spoons in sets of sizes. The rounded back produces the concave profile and the hourglass shape. Each crew member has favorites, and borrowing someone's spoon without asking can start an argument on the stage.
Hand me the big spoon, these joints are an inch wide and the little one's leaving ridges.
Also heard as
- tooling spoon
Related terms
Tooling
Pressing and shaping freshly applied sealant with a tool to force it against the joint faces and give it a neat profile.
Dry tooling
Tooling sealant without water, soap or solvent on the tool, as most manufacturers require.
Hourglass profile
The ideal cross-section of a sealant joint: thick at both bond faces and thinner in the middle.
Skin time
How long after application a sealant forms a surface skin, which ends the window for tooling.