palette knife

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Painting knife

Palette knife of the type commonly used for mixing paint

A palette knife is a blunt tool with an extremely flexible steel blade and no sharpened cutting edge, although one edge can commonly become razor sharp after long term use. This is the result of the abrasive qualities of the powdered pigments in the paints that the palette knife is being used to mix. It is primarily used for mixing paint colors, paste, etc., or for marbling, decorative endpapers, etc. The "palette" in the name is a reference to an artist's palette which is used for mixing oil paints. Certain artistic techniques, such as those of Leonid Afremov, call for painting with a palette knife.

Art palette knives come primarily in two types:

• symmetric knife resembling a putty knife with a rounded tip, suited for mixing paints on the palette;
• asymmetric knife with a pointed tip, lowered or "cranked" like a trowel, suited for painting on canvas.

Palette knives are also used in cooking, where their flexibility allows them to easily slide underneath pastries or other items. See frosting spatula.