Clinker Bricks

We still have snow on the ground. The roads have been clear for days, but it has been so pretty here, we've stayed close to home anyway. Of course, we did go to the bookstore … twice.

The view above is from our back yard looking toward the guest deck (at Kangaroo House Bed & Breakfast, which is where we live, of course). In the upper right corner, you can see part of the clinker brick chimney. Clinker bricks are bricks that would get so hot in wood-fired kilns that silica would form a glaze on the surface of the brick. At one time they were considered throw-away bricks, but bricklayers and masons soon learned the bricks are more durable and last longer than standard bricks. Unfortunately, their shape becomes distorted during the firing, so they don’t usually retain their block shape. Fortunately for us, though, clinker bricks were used in our chimney when the house was built in 1907.