Heard a guy at the supply house say mudding is all in the wrist, had to laugh

I was picking up a few boxes of 90 minute compound at the local building center in Tulsa last Thursday, and I overheard this older guy telling a younger kid that finishing drywall is all about wrist motion. He made it sound like flicking a paintbrush or something. I wanted to chime in but I held my tongue. The truth is, it's way more about the consistency of your mud and the angle of your knife than some fancy wrist action. I've been doing this for 12 years now, and I still fight with tape bubbles on butt joints if I don't get the mud just right. Has anyone else run into apprentices who think there's some magic wrist trick instead of just practicing the basics a hundred times?

2 comments

2 Comments

lindaowens1mo ago

My buddy Mike tried teaching his nephew how to tape drywall last summer and the kid showed up with a golf glove thinking it would help his wrist action. Mike about lost it. He spent the first hour just mixing the mud to the right consistency while the kid stood there waiting for some secret wrist movement. Finally Mike told him to just spread a straight line and stop overthinking it. The kid went through a whole bucket on one joint before he got it halfway decent. There's no shortcut, just a lot of bad tape jobs before you figure it out.

wright.lisa1mo agoTop Commenter

Cried laughing at the golf glove, that's gold.