Brick Cutting Day

After some early morning rain, no more was expected, so I picked up the brick cutter I had reserved at a local rental place.

I was able to get a hold of my hired young man, Paul, who came over this afternoon to cut bricks.

It took us at least an hour to figure out how to set the machine to cut skewbacks at the exact same angle. Claude was in on that part, so it was 3 heads working together. I need 18 on each side, a total of 36. So I had Paul cut at least 40 skewbacks.

Next we went to the chimney, which is not mortared yet, just dry set. I just kept building it up and had to cut 2 bricks per row, as we corbeled in 3/4" per row per side. That means we made each row going up 1.5" less wide than the row below. I think one can figure out what I mean from the photo on the left.
The only (minor) complication was when I dropped a ruler down the chimney. Of course, it was near the end of the day, and the chimney was getting high. Fortunately, we were able to go into the kiln & reach through a flue hole to get it out.

We took a break in the middle of the day to go to Claude's workshop & pick up the arch support he had made. I believe I am ready to lay the arch bricks - as soon as I coordinate schedules with Howard. He may find something else I need to prepare...

My body is so tired & exhausted today. I'll sleep like a rock tonight.