DeWalt 6" x 2-3/4" Pointing Trowel

I brought the DeWalt pointing trowel to a weekend repointing job on a brick stoop and ended up keeping it on my belt for the rest of the month. It’s a compact, well-balanced hand tool that rewards careful work and doesn’t fight you when you need finesse. If you do any brick, block, or stone repair—or you’re the designated fixer of cracks, voids, and tight corners—this is the kind of trowel that earns its keep.

Build and materials

The blade and shank are forged from a single piece of carbon steel. That one-piece construction is the single biggest reason this trowel feels stiff and trustworthy. There’s none of the telltale wiggle where the tang meets the handle that you get in cheaper, multi-piece trowels. The blade is cross-ground and edge-ground, so the taper feels deliberate from heel to point, and the edges are crisp enough to slice through a mortar ribbon or pack wet mix into a stubborn joint.

The finish is hand-polished, which reduces drag when you’re feathering or scraping. Carbon steel is the right choice here: it’s strong, takes a keen edge, and offers that springy stiffness you want when you’re levering or pulling mortar into a joint. Do expect a patina and the possibility of surface rust if you don’t dry it after cleanup. That’s not a flaw—just normal carbon steel behavior.

Dimensions are true to spec: a 6-inch blade with a maximum width of about 2-3/4 inches. On paper that sounds small; in hand, the size is exactly what I want for pointing and patching. It’s long enough to scoop and spread a reasonable amount of material, yet narrow and agile for tight work between courses.

Ergonomics and comfort

The handle is a soft-grip plastic with enough girth to fill the palm. I found it comfortable over long sessions, even when I was working overhead along a stone lintel. The rubberized surface stays tacky when wet and rinses clean without getting slick. Balance point sits just ahead of the index finger, which makes tip control easy and reduces wrist strain during repetitive packing and striking.

At roughly half a pound, the tool is light without feeling flimsy. That matters more than you think: when you’re carrying a load of mortar on the blade, the last thing you want is extra handle weight wearing on your wrist. This strikes a good balance between stiffness and fatigue reduction.

On-site performance

This trowel is built for tight spaces and it shows. The pointed tip is excellent for chasing out decayed joints after you’ve done the bulk removal, and it’s surprisingly effective at scoring and trimming excess mortar before it skins over. I used the point to define corners on a stone walkway patch and to clean edges where the brick meets trim. The edge grind helps scrape dried smears off brick faces without resorting to a wire brush or sponge as often.

Where it excels is controlled pack-and-pull work. The narrow profile lets you load material deep into joints without plastering the surrounding faces. The polished blade releases cleanly, so you can feather a small ridge or smooth a fillet with a couple of confident passes. Flex is minimal; when you lever a bit to compact a void, the blade holds true instead of springing away and throwing mortar.

Precision and control

For pointing tools, the tip geometry matters. This one comes with a fairly crisp point and sharp edges out of the box. That sharpness is handy for crisp lines and for breaking up thin, stubborn material. If you’re working delicate or polished stone where scratching is a concern, it’s easy enough to soften the tip with a few strokes on a file. I left mine as-is for brick and rough stone; the control was excellent, and the edges stayed true after several rinse-and-scrape cycles.

The 6-inch blade gives you just enough runway to load a compact, consistent ribbon. If you’ve ever fought a too-wide trowel that drags across the edges of adjacent bricks, you’ll appreciate how this one stays in its lane.

Durability and maintenance

One-piece forging means fewer failure points. After several jobs—including some admittedly abusive scraping on rough fieldstone—the shank-to-blade junction remains tight, and the blade is still straight. The soft-grip handle has held up to repeated rinsing and occasional solvent wipes without getting gummy.

Maintenance is basic: knock off the wet mortar as you go, rinse before it sets, and dry the blade. I give it a light oil wipe at the end of the day when I know it’s going to sit for a while. Carbon steel will spot if you leave it damp in a bucket, so don’t.

Where it fits in your kit

• Repointing and touch-ups: Ideal size and stiffness for refreshing mortar joints on brick, block, and stone.
• Tight spaces: The point reaches into corners, behind trim, and around fixtures where wider trowels are clumsy.
• Small patching: Packing voids in steps, patching paving stones, setting edging, and general masonry repairs.
• Cleanup and edging: The ground edges are handy for scraping smears and defining lines before final tooling.

If your day’s work is primarily laying full courses or moving large volumes of mortar, you’ll want a larger brick trowel to do the heavy lifting and keep this one for detail work. This is a specialist, not a do-everything flat trowel.

What I’d change

• Offer a less-sharp factory tip option. I like the crisp point, but some users working on softer stone might appreciate a slightly eased nose from the factory.
• Stainless variant for wet or coastal environments. Carbon steel is the right performance choice here, but a stainless option would appeal to those who don’t want to think about rust at all.

Neither of these are dealbreakers; they’re more about expanding the lineup than fixing flaws.

Value and warranty

With DeWalt’s one-year warranty and the typical 90-day return window you see at many retailers, it’s a low-risk addition to your kit. More importantly, the construction quality and materials suggest a long service life if you treat it decently. There are cheaper pointing trowels out there, but most cut costs in the handle or use multi-piece construction that loosens over time. This one feels like a buy-once tool for pointing and patching.

Tips for best results

• Preload the blade: Trowel a thin skim of mortar across the blade first; it reduces sticking and helps you pull cleaner ribbons.
• Work from the inside out: Pack from the back of the joint toward the face to avoid trapping voids.
• Clean as you go: A quick scrape and rinse before the mortar sets saves you a lot of scrubbing later.
• Adjust the tip to suit: If the factory point feels too sharp for your material, ease it with a file for more forgiving contact.

Bottom line

The DeWalt pointing trowel is a compact, stiff, and precise tool that excels at the kind of work most general-purpose trowels make frustrating. The one-piece carbon steel build inspires confidence, the soft-grip handle is genuinely comfortable over long sessions, and the ground, polished blade gives you the control you need to pack joints cleanly and work in tight spaces without collateral mess.

Recommendation: I recommend this trowel for anyone who does regular masonry repair, repointing, or small-form concrete and stone work. It’s sized for precision, built to last, and comfortable enough to use all day. Keep a larger trowel for bulk work, but for the detail jobs that make or break the finish, this is the one I’d reach for.