Took me 7 years to learn the trowel angle for face brick

Back in April I was laying a garden wall in Tacoma and a retired mason walked by. He watched me for a minute and said, "You're scooping, not slicing." I had no clue what he meant. Turns out I was holding my trowel too flat and dragging mortar instead of cutting it with the heel. First few throws after his tip felt weird, but by the end of the day my joints were way tighter and I stopped smearing the face. Has anyone else had some old-timer point out a basic habit you'd been doing wrong for ages?

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aarons361mo ago

Sounds like that mason saved you years of bad habits. I had a similar thing happen with my circular saw, some roofer told me I was pushing instead of letting the blade do the work, took me forever to realize what he meant. It's funny how the simplest tips from old guys just click after you've been fighting it for so long.

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