Brickmaker
From ThreadsOfTime
Contents |
Brickmaker Trivia
- Bricks are just beginning to be used in new construction.
- Unskilled laborers can make bricks
- Landowners assigned surfs to brickmaking
- Autumn brickfiring tradition is a widely anticipated today
Unskilled men, women, and children make bricks
Surfs; poor unskilled nearly free laborers, and sometimes indentured or convict servants practice the brickmaking trade. In large yards owned and overseen by a master and in family-owned businesses, men, women, and children participated in the trade.
Wealthy landowners assigned surfs to brickmaking
Wealthy landowners building an estate may have assigned a number of their surfs/servants to make bricks for the new structure.
Brickyard
Today, a more skilled brickmaker or tiler may have invested in a brickyard. Here, the tradesman has his employees make bricks during the warm months and sees to the dramatic firing of the brick kiln in the fall. The brickmakers often ask hire the destitute to help with their chores. Children particularly enjoy stomping water into the clay with their bare feet.
Bricks made on site at the brickyard are more readily available. They were recently used in a smokehouse, dairy, the lumberhouse's foundation, and the foundation and center chimney of a Lady's kitchen. The brickmakers are currently experimenting with lime burning, mortar making, bricklaying, and plastering techniques. With all the foundations, chimneys, and walkways made of brick, the brickmakers is sure to remain busy for years to come!
How the bricks are made
Bricks are made from native clay during the warm months of the year. First, clay is shoveled into a treading pit. Working in the pit, brickmakers use their feet to stomp water into the clay. As soon as it is a smooth consistency, the clay is pulled from the pit and piled upon a molding table.
Before being shaped in a wooden mold, the form and a 'brick-sized' loaf of clay are dusted with sand to keep the clay from sticking. Before molding begins, roots, leaves, sticks, and other debris are cleaned from the clay. The molder throws each loaf of clay into the mold. The excess clay is removed by drawing a straight, wooden stick across the top of the form. The filled mold is 'off-beared' or carried to raised beds of sand for drying. Once there, the soft bricks are dropped out of the mold and left to dry.
After a week or so, the somewhat-dry bricks are placed in a drying shed. Protected from the weather, the bricks are stored and will continue drying for six more weeks.
Stacking and firing the kiln is part of the 'art' of brickmaking. First, bricks are used to set four walls with arched fire tunnels. Approximately 20,000 bricks are stacked in the oven, always a finger's width apart to allow the fire to draft upward. After the structure is sealed with clay, wood is placed in the tunnels, and the fires are lit. The fires burn for about six days – day and night. The brickmakers remain on site during the entire burn period, getting little sleep and keeping the fires burning and the wood stacked and ready to add to the fire. Near the end of the burn, the kiln reaches a temperature of 1,850 degrees Fahrenheit. The bricks inside the kiln glow yellow, and flames travel from the fire tunnels up out the top of the oven and sometimes, the edges of the bricks facing into the fire tunnels receive a glaze. After approximately seven days of burning, the brickmakers let the fires bank, close the fire tunnels and reseal the kiln with clay. The fired bricks must cool for at least a week before the kiln maybe unstacked. Each kiln firing yields several qualities of bricks. About half of the kiln contains well-baked bricks. The remaining bricks are either under fired salmon-colored, best saved for interior walls, or over-fired, purple and blue 'clinkers'.
Gallery of Brickmaking
 Digging clay. |
 Preparing Loaves. |
 The Stricking Process. |
 Mortaring a brick. |
 The Lime Mortar. |
 A leveling tool. |
 Kiln fire glowing. |
 Stirring the Coals. |
 The Kiln. |
