Method and apparatus for making textured bricks

The method for making extruded bricks having a textured handmade appearing face designed to form an outer building wall surface, comprising the steps of feeding a column of brick-forming clay mix into a progressively narrowing inlet funnel portion of a brick extruding die, progressively constricting the clay mix column while feeding the same from said inlet funnel portion through a die throat section of the extruding die of horizontally elongated rectangular cross-section defined by downstream converging upper, lower and side boundary surfaces to shape the clay mix column to a rectangular cross-section whose width dimension perpendicular to said face slightly exceeds the desired ultimate brick width, disrupting the clay column in said die throat section at a subsurface location spaced near and below the uppermost boundary surface of the die throat section along a plane substantially spanning the transverse extent of the die throat section by pressurized downstream-directed liquid jets internally disrupting the clay mix column at said subsurface location in said die throat section along a disruption plane substantially paralleling said uppermost boundary surface, and plowing off the uppermost strata of the clay mix column at a downstream location spaced from the zone of said subsurface disrupting liquid jets to expose the disrupted zone of the clay mix column and form the textured handmade appearing face of the extruded brick, and slicing the column exiting from the die along planes perpendicular to the direction of movement thereof after plowing off the uppermost strata thereof to form discrete bricks.