Pro tip: I gave up on the 10 inch trowel after 25 years

For most of my career I swore by the big trowel for face brick, thought it saved time on a church job in Boise back in 2019. Then a young hod carrier showed me how he laid buttered joints with a 6 inch and I watched my line actually straighter by the end of the day. Anyone else switch to a smaller trowel for certain brick and find the finish worth the extra passes?

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sullivan.abby28d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, did the smaller trowel actually change how you lay your line, or did it just slow you down enough to pay attention? I see guys swap tools all the time and think they found magic, but half the time they just got more careful because they were doing extra passes. What kind of brick were you running that day, and were you buttering both ends or just the beds? Because I have a feeling the finish looks better with the 6 inch, but I want to know if your speed stayed close to what you had with the 10 inch. Twenty five years is a long time to toss aside for one good day, so I am curious what the real tipping point was for you.