Palette knife - Definition and Overview

A common palette knife

A palette knife is a blunt knife with a very flexible steel blade and no sharpened cutting edge. 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 call for painting with a palette knife.

Art palette knives come primarily in two types:

• symmetric knife that ressembles a putty knife with a rounded tip;
• asymmetric knife where the working tip is lowered like a trowel from the handle and the tip is pointed.

The latter is more suited for painting on canvas. The former is used more for mixing paints on the palette.

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