My Homemade Hawk

Because I've been doing so much drywall work, I thought I'd share my version of a drywall hawk (the tool that allows you to carry wet compound as you finish joints and fastener heads.) When I began my adventures into
drywall finishing I thought it would just be one room, so it seemed unnecessary to purchase a professional hawk. I experimented with a few things, and then I came up with this: I took a plastic lid from a cat litter bucket, trimmed of two sides (one side with a longer edge so I could load a 10-inch knife). Then I cut a piece of 1x2 scrap to serve as a support, screwed it to the lid with drywall screws and then screwed the piece of dowel through the lid into the 1x. You can see from the photo that it has had a lot of use (2 rooms and the hallway). The great thing about it is the plastic lid is easy to scrape and wash off, and I don't have to worry about it rusting.