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Was skeptical about using a brick hammer for splitface work, but tried it last week
Always used a chisel and mallet for splitface blocks on retaining walls, but a guy on a site near Austin swore the brick hammer was faster. Gave it a shot on a 50 foot wall and it cut my time by almost half. Anyone else switch tools and find something that worked better than they expected?
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bettywood8d ago
My buddy Mike tried this a few years back on a retaining wall he was building at his place. He was using a regular chisel and a 2 pound mallet for hours and his hand was cramping up. Someone at the supply yard told him to grab a brick hammer and he said it was like night and day, the wall was a little rough on the edges but once he mortared it you couldn't even tell. He finished the whole thing in an afternoon instead of two days.
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bettyfox8d ago
Wait, hold on, you cut your time in half with a brick hammer on splitface? I've been beating on those blocks with a chisel and mallet for years because everyone told me it was the only way to get a clean break. That's wild, I can't believe it made that big of a difference on a 50 foot wall. Now I feel like I've been doing it the hard way this whole time for no good reason. Did the brick hammer leave a rougher edge or did it clean up pretty nice?
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