Hand-struck brick is brick individually shaped and pressed into a mold by hand rather than machine-extruded, resulting in irregular texture, slight variation in size and shape, and a rougher, more uneven face than mass-produced modern brick.
Before brickmaking machinery took over, brick was formed by pressing wet clay into wooden molds by hand and striking off the excess, a process that leaves each brick a little different from the next: subtle creases, uneven edges, slight size variation. That irregularity is part of what gives older buildings their character, but it also makes hand-struck brick genuinely hard to duplicate with anything coming off a modern extrusion line, which produces brick that's uniform by design.
On older homes and buildings around Fancy Gap and the surrounding area, hand-struck brick shows up on additions, chimneys, and repair work where a mason has to decide whether to hunt for a salvage match or accept that new brick simply won't look the same. Matching hand-struck brick well takes patience, checking texture and color against the original in daylight, not just picking the closest size off a supplier's list.
More masonry vocabulary from the glossary.
The services where this term comes up.
Chelo's Brick & Stone serves Hillsville, Galax, Wytheville, Fancy Gap, and Independence, VA. Call for a straight answer and a free on-site estimate.
