bricklaying - furrowing bed joints

[sm_jamieson]

Just found this:

the bricklaying instruction I've seen says to furrow the beds so the bricks can be tapped down easily. I guess you shouldn't furrow to excess. The top picture looks just like the result of using a mortar template like bricky tool etc. Any thoughts from folks with some bricklaying experience ? Simon.

[dg]

this:

All the bricklaying instruction I've seen says to furrow the beds so

Thats rubbish advice from that site.

The brick has to be laid and adjusted in 3 dimensions. You can't do this expediantly with a solid bed. There will be no give in the bed joint to allow the brick to be postioned correctly.

The furrows allow both adjustment and increase suction and bond of the brick to the mortar.

The art is to lay enough mortar so that once the brick is in position, the bed has compacted to solid mortar, and just enough has been squeezed out to allow for jointing the next brick

dg