Masonry verb for coating a brick's bed and head faces with mortar, by trowel or by dipping, before laying it. Refractory brickies butter thin and even so joints end up a millimetre or two thick, often dipping the brick and rubbing it into place. Over-buttered joints squeeze out unevenly and leave weak, porous mortar for slag to attack.
Butter it thin and rub it in, I don't want to see mortar squeezing out of those joints.
Also heard as
- buttering
Related terms
Refractory mortar
Fine refractory mix used to lay and bond firebrick, either heat-setting, air-setting or phosphate-bonded.
Mud
Shop word for the clay used to plug a blast furnace taphole, and bricklayers' word for mortar.
Brickie
Shop name for a refractory bricklayer, especially in Britain, Australia and steel plant crews.
Closer
Brick cut to size to fill the last gap in a course, ring or wall.