Masonry Magazine May 2003 Page. 32
Stone WORKING TOOLS
chase different tools for each application. The four replacement
blade sizes are fully interchangeable, allowing for complete ver-
satility on the job. Each Hubbard Jointer is assembled with a
7/8" and a 3/4" diameter blade. There is an extra 1/2" and 5/8"
diameter blade included with each packaged Jointer.
Hubbard Jointers Inc. also provides a tool masons refer to as
a sled runner. The sled runner is used in the same manner as
the jointer. The difference is the length of the blade. The
blades are longer than each individual masonry unit (brick).
The sled runner is used on the long horizontal mortar joint
and helps produce a more uniform finish on the joint by over-
lapping the individual brick correcting any slight variations in
the horizontal joint.
Mason's Grade Pole
TOM BLACK, a third-generation mason contractor,
remembers the days before the laser came along when he and
his father set the grades for masonry walls in Las Vegas, Nev. "I
was always the one who had to stand at the staking point and
hold the tape measure while dad looked through the old transit
level and read the numbers on the tape," he recalls. "That num-
ber became the starting point for establishing the height of the
first course of blocks. Most of the walls were built with stan-
dard eight-inch high blocks. The problem came about if we
had to step the wall up or down because then we had to add or
BRICK SPACING RULES
Brick masons use a folding
ruler with special markings for
layout of brick courses. Until
three years ago, the only folding,
rulers with brick spacing scales
available were made of wood
and would last a very short time
due to breakage. And if they
didn't break, the numbers would
wear off from rugged outdoor use. Then a bricklayer in Oregon decided that
he had shelled out his last twenty bucks for a "disposable" tool and set out
to improve it. After two years of research and personal field-testing, he
introduced "Rhino Rulers." These are waterproof folding rulers made of
fiberglass with a typical lifespan of about one year.
According to David Rael, that Oregon mason who now heads Rhino Tools,
"Rhino Rulers have caught the attention of masonry tool distributors nation-
wide and are quickly becoming the new standard for brick spacing rulers.
You can now find other versions of fiberglass rulers, but masons prefer
going with the ruler from the guy with mortar on his boots."
subtract in eight-inch multiples. A story pole would have been
nice but impossible to use over and over again because the ele
vation of the first row of blocks in the foundation and the ele-
vation of the transit level never matched from job to job. So we
just used the tape and transit system."
Setting the level lines for the wall was always exasperating to
Black. "Using the old transit system on some of the 1000 foot
long walls we were doing, we would have to
move the level every 200 feet. When you
are trying to hold the tape measure secure-
ly to the metal stake and extend it high
enough for the person looking through the
level to see the numbers, it can get difficult.
This is especially true when the wind is
blowing and you are down in a ditch and
unable to look at the grade stake and the
person shooting the grade at the same
time. Exasperating to say the least-espe
cially when it is nine in the morning and
105 degrees and the concrete truck just
pulled up with a 12-yard load."
Then the laser system came along. "It
was like a miracle, we could actually leave
the laser at the same location for almost the
entire length of the wall," Black says. "The
laser did make things a lot easier, but not
easy enough. Two years ago I had enough
of the old way of setting the grades. The
typical 1x2x72 inch wood stick with our
story marks on it, and the Rod-Eye
attached, was no longer working for us. It
still had to be held tightly to the metal stake
with the Rod-Eye placed on the stick and
story points established in increments of
eight, six or four inches from that laser
point in order to establish the height and
the steps for the first course of blocks.
These marks always have to be erased and