Hawk (Plasterer's Tool)

A hawk is a tool used to hold plaster, mortar or a similar material so the user can repeatedly, quickly and easily pick some of it up on the tool and then apply it to a surface. It consists of a board about thirteen inches square with a handle fixed perpendicular to its center on the underside; the user holds the hawk flat in the non-dominant hand and works the material onto it with a trowel or another tool held in the dominant hand. Plasterers use hawks together with finishing trowels to apply a smooth coat of plaster to a wall, brick pointers use them to hold mortar while pointing brickwork, and they are also used to hold joint compound for taping and jointing. The tool's name most likely comes from the way it rides balanced on the user's arm, the way a bird of prey rides there.