what is making my bricks look soooo bad

Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that was painted over by the previous owners of the house. I would like to get back to the bare brick and have removed the paint from a few of the bricks and mortar with a blow torch. Unfortunately the bricks that I have revealed so far look as if they would be better painted over again! Would you mind looking at a couple of pictures that I took of them and letting me know iwhat I can do to the bricks to make them more presentable.
Here is a link to the pics, can't fnd how to upload pics to this site.
http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=203t16v1.bdo1zbi5&Uy=-t9js3q&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Thank you in advance
Ian

 

Judging from the exposed brick and the mortar joint pattern, you have very rustic brick. There appears to be a random color variation.

Depending on personal tastes and architectural use, many people would pay a lot of money for your wall if it was stripped of all coatings. Your preferences may be different.

You will not be able to change the pattern of the mortar joints. You can change the texture of the brick if you apply very thick coatings.

Much depends on what appearance you want to acheive.

Dick

 

Thank you for your reply Concretemasonry.

My house was built in the 1920s so not too rustic. I do like the pattern of the mortar joints which is one of the reasons that I would like to expose the brick.
What I would like to remove is the, what looks like smears of, mortar spreading from the joints onto the brick and if possible the white flecks in the brick.
I have tried scrubbing with water and ddetergent to no avail.