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Cherokee Brick Blog

How Tumbled Brick is Made

by Riley Chatham

Posted on May 30, 2026 12:00 AM

Many homeowners fall in love with the look of reclaimed brick—the chipped edges, softened corners, and unique, weathered textures that suggest a rich history—but true salvaged material often comes with hidden structural weaknesses, exorbitant costs, and a tendency to crumble over time.

At Cherokee Brick, we solved this problem by creating our Handcrafted and Heritage Collections using a proprietary tumbling process that delivers a centuries-old look on a brand-new, structurally perfect brick. The journey begins by sourcing natural clay and shale locally right here in Georgia and Mississippi, ensuring a raw material that breathes and naturally resists fire and pests before it is processed, extruded into columns, and cut into precise rectangles. Before entering the kiln, these unfired bricks undergo our specialized, proprietary mechanical tumbling process where they are gently rolled, dented, and abraded to soften the sharp, factory-cut edges and introduce random, organic imperfections so that no two bricks are exactly alike.

The process finishes in our advanced kilns, which run exclusively on eco-friendly natural and diverted landfill methane gas, where the bricks are fired at intensely high temperatures to vitrify the clay and permanently lock in its structural strength.

The final result is a brick that easily satisfies modern ASTM standards, resists the elements for generations, and carries a lifetime warranty, all while looking like it was salvaged from a 19th-century historic estate.