Hods, Hawks, and Brick Carriers

Steel & wood hods, USA 1938

Hods, hawks, and brick carriers are for carrying or holding material.

A hod is a 3-sided tray with a pole handle for carrying mortar or brick at shoulder height.

A hawk is a square of wood or sheet metal with a handle on the underside used to hold plaster, drywall compound, or mortar.

While lightweight, rustproof aluminum makes an ideal hawk, it was slow to replace wood and steel. In the early 20th century, aluminum was an expensive metal due to its high refining costs. Today, aluminum smelting uses an average of  15.7 kWh of electricity to produce one kilogram of aluminum, versus about 21 kWh in the 1950s.

Old steel plasterer's hawk, brass ferrule

Wood hawk, USA 1938

Foulkes aluminum hod, UK 1951

Brick carriers, or brick tongs in the UK, or pince à brique et pavé in Quebec,hold a stack of bricks horizontally by leverage and friction with the weight of the bricks providing the pressure, and they are expandable. One of the best-known older brands is the Fuller Brikarier, originally made in Newhall, Iowa, near Cedar Rapids. Harry E. Fuller (1867-1943) obtained US Patent 1,385,867 on the device. Brick carriers were invented to speed unloading bricks from rail cars and into wagons. Previously, a line of men would pass them from hand to hand. A look at US eBay shows it is easier to buy an antique brick carrier there than it is an antique brick trowel.

1922 Fuller ad.

Fuller Brikarier brick carrier

1916 Cleveland Brick Clamp ad