Which one is better for finishing skim coat? Plaster is very thin hard to spread even always get knife marks when spreading.

White Cement dries up too quick to spread properly.

end up i use paint brush to brush the Finishing Plaster onto the wall. later sand it even. but i think nobody use brush. but it's difficult to apply enough on the wall by the time i finish the area already too dry to spread evenly.

i notice some worker after use fine plaster i think they use white cement. because fine plaster is white but still abit yellowish while white cement is quite white.

why can't you just get skim coat?

From my understanding, usually plastering wall are using plaster, is smooth but soft and easy to dry. White cement is harder but slower to dry and sticky, so is a bit hard to make the surface smooth compare to plaster. Sometime, there is some ppl mix up 2 material, plaster and cement, to make it a bit harder, slower to dry, but a bit smoother, however, what is the best mix ratio, i not sure.

Did you use the right tools for fine plaster? The plaster knife must be bigger than the hole.

i used different tools, from normal scalper, to trowel, to big putty knife, and the really long one.

scalper, easy to use, but too small.

big putty knife, good but must use tray to carry the putty in order to dip the big knife. Malaysia cannot find the longkang type putty tray that can fit the knife and also easy to scrap the knife edge.

Trowel, can't get it to work. i see indon worker really good at spreading but i think useful for really thin & wet coat.

really long putty knife. this one totally fail. everytime spread there is a knife mark. found out the center of it has a defect small dot poking out tried scrapping with knife doesn't work. even if remove the dot, the edge will have a dot cave in uneven. bought at mr.diy. only realize important checking the edge when buying putty knifes.

And for the mixture, too thick hard to spread sometimes drag until "hole" effect (which is normally seen in building walls), watery is easy to spread but really thin.

sanding blocks doesn't work as good as sand paper. but sand paper not as even as sanding block. so have to use sand paper on edges (or wet cloth) to even out the edges so it's less noticeable.

in the end the imperfections (knife mark, uneven surface) is hard to spot before paint due to putty being matte white. but i wonder how it will look like after painted.

also it's important to use a clean bucket to mix the putty. if not other leftover like sand mix with putty end up hard to use the putty even just 1 dot of sand. so in the end i cut out water bottle use then throw away no need clean. ain't nobody got time to use mixing machine.

in the end my effort is as good as indon worker half hearted effort.