It's a battery powered saws-all to take those apart correctly.
I've got some pictures, somewhere...gotta find them if they are still out there.
I took apart the hearth of a chimney a few years ago. There are pictures in the gallery on the site of that place. If I recall correctly, it was built in '27...maybe a year or two earlier. Now I want to say '29...just can't remember.
Damn...I could ramble on this place. It was next to preserved land...he could shoot deer from his back porch. Anyway...
I took apart about 8 SQ ft of that hearth...took me two days. Brick, by brick. Water, concrete blade on the saws-all, and patience.
It was built with "Charleston brick." Look it up. It means something.
I got 97 bricks out of that cut out. I took them into his back yard and made a fire pit.
Pretty cool experience...let me see if I can find the pics