Pro tip: spent 3 years buttering my head joints, then a guy named Sal asked me why
Was working a fireplace repoint in Allentown back in March and Sal, a 30 year guy, watched me lay 40 bricks and asked why I was buttering the head joints on the bed too. I told him thats how my first foreman showed me in 2019, and he just laughed and said the mud squeezes out the sides and starves the joint, which is why my mortar kept cracking on freeze thaw jobs. Anybody else get taught a bad habit early and not find out for years?
Feel for you on this one, three years is a long time to be doing it the hard way. I had a foreman teach me to load the joint way too heavy my first year and it took forever to break the habit. At least Sal caught it before you had another winter of callbacks.