Walk into any builders’ merchant and the trowel wall tells a story. On one side you’ve got OX — bright green handles, everywhere, cheap enough to buy two. On the other you’ve got Marshalltown — the name half the older plasterers on site have been using for thirty years and won’t hear a word against. Two very different brands, two very different price tags, and a lot of tradespeople quietly wondering whether the expensive one is actually worth double.
This is a straight head-to-head for anyone laying brick or spreading muck for a living. We’ll cover brick trowels, plastering and finishing trowels, the steel and handles that separate them, what they cost in the UK right now, and where each brand genuinely earns its money. No spec-sheet waffle — just what matters when you’re on the boards ten hours a day.
Our quick verdict
Buy OX if you want honest tools that graft without emptying your wallet. For brick trowels, small tools and your first proper kit, OX is hard to argue with — a decent stainless plastering trowel sits around £30 against Marshalltown’s £45-plus, and for most jobs you genuinely won’t feel the difference. It’s the sensible choice for apprentices, second sets, and anyone who’s had a good trowel walk off a shared site.
Buy Marshalltown if finishing is your bread and butter. Their plastering trowels — especially the pre-worn ‘broken-in’ DuraSoft lines — flex and lay off in a way that a fresh OX blade takes weeks of use to match. A skimmer who’s fast and fussy will get that money back in cleaner walls and less rubbing up. For pure bricklaying the gap narrows, but the Marshalltown London-pattern brick trowel is still a lovely tool if you’ve got the budget.
Short version: OX wins on value and everyday kit; Marshalltown wins on finish quality and the long game. Most working tradespeople end up owning both.
The two brands at a glance
| Factor | OX Tools | Marshalltown |
| Origin & focus | British-founded (2011), high-volume wet-trade brand | US heritage brand (est. 1890), plastering & concrete specialists |
| Brick trowel price | ~£18–£30 | ~£30–£48 |
| Plastering trowel price | ~£30–£50 | ~£45–£75+ |
| Blade steel | Lacquer-coated stainless / carbon | Blue tempered spring steel & DuraSoft stainless |
| Handle | TPR soft-grip as standard | DuraSoft / hardwood depending on line |
| Break-in | Ready to use | ‘Broken-in’ pre-worn options for skimming |
| Where to buy | Screwfix, Toolstation, Amazon UK | Specialist merchants, Amazon UK, some Screwfix lines |
| Best for | Value, everyday graft, first kit | Skim finish, longevity, fussy plasterers |
Prices above are typical UK inc-VAT figures at the time of writing and move around with promotions — always check current pricing at Screwfix, Toolstation or Amazon UK before you buy.
Brand overviews
OX Tools
OX is the younger brand by a country mile — founded in 2011 with roots in Australia and a big UK push through Screwfix and Toolstation. It built its reputation on high-volume wet-trade gear: brick trowels, plastering trowels, levels, tapes and mixing paddles, nearly all wearing that unmistakable green TPR grip. The ‘Pro’ range is the one worth looking at — lacquer-coated stainless blades, aluminium shanks and a soft-grip handle as standard, at prices that undercut the heritage names.
The knock on OX used to be that it was cheap-and-cheerful. That’s largely unfair now. The Pro trowels are genuinely well-made tools that hold an edge and shrug off site abuse. What you don’t get is decades of blade-tempering pedigree, and the very hardest-to-please plasterers still say a new OX finishing trowel takes longer to ‘come good’ than a broken-in Marshalltown. For everything short of high-end skimming, that’s a small price to pay for the money you save.
Marshalltown
Marshalltown has been making trowels in the United States since 1890, and the brand carries the kind of loyalty you only earn over a century. Its plastering and concrete tools are the reference point a lot of the trade measures everything else against — the PermaShape range, the blue-steel finishing trowels and the golden stainless DuraSoft models are fixtures in serious plasterers’ kits.
Two things justify the premium. First, the steel: Marshalltown’s tempered blue spring steel and its stainless blades are worked to a temper that flexes predictably and lays off cleanly. Second, the ‘broken-in’ options — trowels pre-worn at the factory so you skip the painful few weeks of a stiff new blade digging in and leaving lines. For a plasterer doing finish coats day in, day out, that’s not a gimmick; it’s real time saved. The trade-off is obvious at the till, where a broken-in DuraSoft finishing trowel can nudge £65–£75 against an OX equivalent at half that.
Brick trowels
For bricklaying, the honest answer is that both brands make a perfectly good London-pattern trowel and the choice is more about feel and budget than performance. OX’s brick trowels sit roughly in the £18–£30 band and turn up on every Screwfix shelf; they’re light, balanced and forgiving, which makes them a sound apprentice’s first trowel. The soft grip is kinder on the hand through a long day than a bare wooden handle, though some old-school brickies will tell you that’s exactly the problem — they want the feedback a hardwood handle gives.
Marshalltown’s brick trowels run pricier, typically £30–£48, and you’re paying for a stiffer, more precisely balanced blade that experienced layers tend to prefer for buttering and cutting. If you’ve been laying twenty years and know exactly how a trowel should sit in your hand, it’s worth trying one. If you’re building your first kit, the OX will lay just as straight a wall and leave you money for the rest of your tools.
Plastering and finishing trowels
This is where the two brands genuinely part company. A finishing trowel lives or dies on how the blade flexes and how quickly it stops leaving lines — and that’s Marshalltown’s home turf. The pre-worn PermaShape and DuraSoft trowels are ready to lay off a clean finish more or less out of the wrapper, which is exactly what a busy skimmer wants. The stainless versions resist rust and staining, handy if you’re working lime or leaving tools damp.
OX Pro plastering trowels — the 14″ x 5″ stainless at around £30, the 11″ at just under that, and the Ultra Flex finishing trowels from roughly £44 — are excellent value and, once worn in, do a genuinely good job. The catch is that ‘once worn in’. A new OX blade is stiffer and needs a few weeks of graft before it lays off like a broken-in Marshalltown. If you’ve got the patience (or a labourer to break it in on browning coats), the saving is real. If your whole day is finish work and time is money, the Marshalltown premium pays for itself.
Build quality, steel and handles
Both brands use stainless and carbon/spring steel across their ranges, so the headline materials look similar on paper. The difference is in the temper and the finish. Marshalltown’s steel is worked to flex consistently and hold its shape over years of use — that’s the century of trowel-making showing. OX’s lacquer-coated stainless is tough and rust-resistant but, at the finishing end, doesn’t quite have the same broken-in feel.
On handles it’s closer than you’d think. OX fits a TPR soft-grip as standard across the Pro range, which most people find comfortable straight away. Marshalltown offers its DuraSoft grip on the premium lines and traditional hardwood on others — the hardwood divides opinion, loved by those who want feedback and disliked by anyone whose hands ache by knocking-off time. Neither brand is going to give you blisters; it comes down to personal preference and how long your days are.
Price and value in the UK
The gap is real but narrower than the reputation suggests. On brick trowels you’re looking at maybe £10–£15 between a comparable OX and Marshalltown. On finishing trowels it widens: an OX Pro stainless at ~£30 against a broken-in Marshalltown DuraSoft at ~£67 is more than double. Whether that’s worth it depends entirely on what you do all day. A general builder who plasters occasionally is throwing money away on the top Marshalltown; a full-time skimmer will earn it back in a fortnight of cleaner walls.
Also worth remembering: trowels on shared sites go missing. Plenty of tradespeople deliberately keep a cheaper OX for the van and site jobbing and save the good Marshalltown for finish work they care about. There’s no shame in owning both for exactly that reason.
Availability
OX has the edge on convenience. It’s stocked deep at Screwfix and Toolstation, so you can click-and-collect a replacement in minutes on a working day. Marshalltown is widely available on Amazon UK and through plastering and building merchants, and some lines appear at Screwfix, but you’re more likely to order specific finishing trowels rather than grab them off a local shelf. If you need a tool today, OX usually wins; if you’re planning your kit, both are easy enough to get.
Buyer’s guide — what to actually look for
Match the trowel to the trade, not the brand. For bricklaying, prioritise balance and a blade length that suits your reach — 11″ to 13″ for most. For plastering, the priority is blade flex and how quickly it lays off, which is where a broken-in trowel earns its keep.
Decide whether you want to break a trowel in yourself. A cheaper new blade saves money but costs you a few weeks of wearing it in on backing coats. A pre-worn trowel costs more but works cleanly from day one. Be honest about which trade-off suits your workload.
Go stainless if you work lime, damp or leave tools without cleaning them religiously — it resists staining and rust. Carbon or blue steel can give a slightly better feel to some plasterers but wants looking after. And whatever you buy, wipe it down and store it flat; the fastest way to ruin any trowel, OX or Marshalltown, is to let muck set on it overnight.
FAQs
Is OX as good as Marshalltown?
For brick trowels and general wet-trade tools, close enough that most people won’t notice the difference — and OX costs less. For high-end finishing work, Marshalltown’s broken-in blades still have the edge. It depends on whether finish quality is your main job or an occasional task.
Why are Marshalltown trowels so expensive?
You’re paying for tempered steel that flexes consistently, over a century of trowel-making know-how, and ‘broken-in’ options that work cleanly from new. For a full-time plasterer that translates into real time saved; for occasional use it’s harder to justify.
What does a ‘broken-in’ trowel mean?
It’s a finishing trowel that the maker has pre-worn so the blade flexes and lays off cleanly straight away, instead of leaving lines for the first few weeks like a stiff new blade. Marshalltown’s DuraSoft and PermaShape ranges offer this; it’s the main reason skimmers pay the premium.
Which should an apprentice buy first?
Start with OX. You get a solid brick trowel and plastering trowel for sensible money, leaving budget for the rest of your kit, and you learn to break a blade in yourself. Upgrade to a Marshalltown finishing trowel later once you know finishing is your thing.
The bottom line
OX and Marshalltown aren’t really rivals so much as two answers to different questions. If the question is ‘what’s the best value tool that’ll graft all day’, it’s OX — cheap to replace, everywhere, and genuinely good once worn in. If the question is ‘what lays off the cleanest finish with the least effort’, it’s Marshalltown, and the premium is money well spent for anyone whose living is a smooth wall.
For most working tradespeople the smart move isn’t picking a side at all. Buy OX for your brick trowel, your small tools and your site spares, and treat yourself to a broken-in Marshalltown for the finish work that actually gets you the next job. That’s the kit most experienced hands end up carrying — and there’s a reason for it.
