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Custom Handrail
The rail was built on site by myself and Alfred "Chip" Patterson. It is the last thing we built on a project of historic preservation, restoration and re-creation that lasted two and half years. It was symbolic of the care and craftsmanship that went into the whole project.
The shape of the handrail is a copy of the original handrail on the circa 1850 section of the house. Two books used for reference were, "The Modern Builder's Guide" by Minard Lafever, and "Techniques of Staircase Construction" by Willibald Mannes. They were invaluable in visualizing what needed to be done.
The hardest part was the curve and drop at the 90 degree turn. Traditionally,
this is done by drawing grid lines to produce a distortion template.
We chose to do a 3-D mockup using 1/8" plywood (figure 1)
to produce the distortion template which we made with mylar. This
gave us exact copies of the top and sides of the drop and the curve.
We then took the templates and laid them out on some beautiful reclaimed heart pine (figure 2) provided by Pine Floors of Pittsboro, N.C.
The wood was then bandsawed. The drop curve was a two step cut -
first the top (figure 3), then the side template was traced
and then bandsawed.
Shaping was next and for this we used many tools - jack plane, drawknife, and miscellaneous sanders.
The long runs were shaped first (figure 4) then the rough blocks for the drop curve were attached. Again we used a mock up of the stairwell to hold the pieces and enable us to get our cuts. The cuts were made using a 12"compound sliding saw. The pieces were doweled without glue at this point.
The 90 degree drop curve was sanded in place (figure 5, 5a).
The returns were also done at this time. We now had all five pieces
ready for final installation (figure 6).
We took the pieces inside and made our final
adjustments for the actual stairwell size and shape. This was pretty
nerve-racking as we had little slack left to play with. We adjusted
the dowels, glued it up and attached it top and bottom and started
breathing again.
Michael Groves finished the stairs and rail. He did a masterful
job of blending the different grains to produce uniformity of color.
A special thanks to Chip for being his incredibly competent and fearless self. Also much thanks to Carl York who did all the impeccable stairwork - threads, risers, skirtboards and posts - that are seen in the photos. Also we would like to thank Marc and Kate Paradis whose commitment to quality and workmanship made this project possible. A good time was had by all.
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| Figure 1. Click above to see the Custom Handrail slideshow. |
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| Figure 2 |
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| Figure 3 |
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| Figure 4 |
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| Figure 5 |
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| Figure 5a |
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| Figure 6 |
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