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Talked to an older bricklayer at a job site in St. Louis and he changed how I think about striking joints
I was working on a retaining wall near Forest Park last month when this gray-haired guy walked over to watch. He said my joints looked too perfect, too uniform. Told me bricklaying used to be about showing the hand of the worker, not hiding it with machine-like precision. Made me realize I had been so focused on getting everything straight and smooth that I lost some of the craft's character. Anyone else run into old timers who made you rethink your technique?
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the_derek13d ago
You ever read that old book "The Craftsman" by Richard Sennett? I picked it up a few years back and it talks about this exact thing. He makes the point that true skill isn't about making everything look the same, it's about knowing when to leave those little marks that show someone actually did the work. That old bricklayer was probably just echoing what guys have known for centuries. I remember reading a blog post by a stone mason in Boston who said the best walls have a rhythm that's slightly off, like a heartbeat, not a metronome. Your joints being too perfect actually hides the fact that you had to adjust for bad bricks or uneven mortar. It's more honest to let those tiny variations show through.
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It's like how vinyl records sound warmer than digital, same idea I guess.
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