Old timer Mike told me I was brushing too fast

A guy I met at a job in Cleveland said I was moving my rods too quick and just pushing soot around instead of actually scraping. He showed me how to slow down and let the brush do the work, especially on flues with thick glaze. Now I take almost twice as long per job but I'm not getting callbacks about falling creosote. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits they picked up early on?

2 comments

2 Comments

johnson.adam29d ago

Did Mike also teach you the secret handshake or the password to get into the slow brush club? I had the same problem except I was using a stiff wire brush on a prefab chimney and just grinding the hell out of the metal. It took a customer calling me out for scratching his chase cover before I realized I was basically sanding his chimney down to nothing. Now I just let the weight of the brush do most of the work and barely push at all.

eric_carr29d ago

Did Mike show you his technique firsthand or just tell you about it? I find that watching someone's actual hand speed versus hearing "slow down" makes a huge difference, especially on those old clay liners where two passes feel wrong but end up cleaner. Were there any tricks he had for knowing when you're actually scraping versus just polishing the glaze off?