For tagging purposes this tag covers both palette knives and painting knives. Both are blunt spatula-like or trowel-like knives used in painting to mix and spread paint.
A palette knife is a spatula-like knife with a long straight blunt blade with a rounded tip, unlike a painting knife which has angular shapes. It is used to mix paints and scrape paint on the canvas. Examples: post #1200056, post #1210470.
A painting knife is a trowel-like knife with a pointed tip and blunt blade of different lengths and shapes, such as triangular, rectangular, or diamond-like. It is used to take paint from the palette and apply it to the canvas. Examples: post #487692, post #1410484.
For the confectionary tool, see icing spatula.