That old mason in Cincinnati told me to stop using a level on every single brick.

I was on a big church job about five years ago, and this guy, must have been seventy, watched me for a solid hour. He finally walked over, tapped my level with his trowel, and said, 'Your eyes are better than that glass. You're building a wall, not a watch.' He made me lay a whole course just by sight, and it was straighter than my first one. Anyone else had a mentor tell them to trust their hands over the tool?

3 comments

3 Comments

erickelly7d ago

Man, that hits home. My old foreman used to say the same thing about trusting your feel. He'd take my tape measure away and make me cut pipe by eye, said the tools were just there to check your work, not do your thinking for you. Took a while to get the confidence, but once you do, you work faster and just... see it better. Sounds like you got a real lesson that stuck.

ryant507d ago

Sounds rough, but why risk a bad cut when the tape's right there?

sarahpark7d ago

Totally get that. It's like your hands learn the work, not just your head. My uncle was a cabinet maker and he'd do the same thing, make us guess the length of a board before we measured. Makes you look at the whole piece, not just the numbers. Did your foreman ever let you use the tape again, or was it gone for good?