Baluster Shapes
Dick
shapes?
Dick
Michael Latcha
Got 792 hits, not too bad.
Mostly commercial "buy our balusters" sites,
but some are interesting:
https://www.stairpartsusa.com/category_s/20.htm
http://www.hansonwoodturning.com/balusters.htm
http://www.pagliacco.com/Balusters_newels.html
http://www.custommade.com/gallery/carving-MA/balusters.html
http://woodstairs.com/parts/balnew.html
etc. That Google thing... simply amazing.
Michael Latcha - at home in Redford, MI
"Dick" <dve...@kiwilink.co.nz> wrote in message
news:1140929737.8...@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Arch
an OT muse on his thread.
Funny how a local community's provincial use of words stays with you all
your life. I started to suggest that Dick just drive down the street and
look at porch railings, but something made me look it up first.
Until today I had thought balusters were for inside stairs and
bannisters were for outside porch rails ....wrong! I found out there's
no real difference. My concepts about davenports & sofas, settees &
chesterfields were also off the mark. I have missed the target with many
others.
Any of you ever been taken aback on finding a long and firmly held
concept was wrong? What were you mistaken about? Purists can limit
their errors of conception to woodturning if OT is too painful. :)
Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter
Derek Andrews
> Funny how a local community's provincial use of words stays with you all
> your life. I started to suggest that Dick just drive down the street and
> look at porch railings, but something made me look it up first.
>
> Until today I had thought balusters were for inside stairs and
> bannisters were for outside porch rails ....wrong! I found out there's
> no real difference. My concepts about davenports & sofas, settees &
> chesterfields were also off the mark. I have missed the target with many
> others.
> Any of you ever been taken aback on finding a long and firmly held
> concept was wrong? What were you mistaken about? Purists can limit
> their errors of conception to woodturning if OT is too painful. :)
I'm glad you brought this up Arch. I was going to wade in with some
links, until I discovered that what the pages showed were what I would
have called stair spindles.
I figured it was a British / USA thing and couldn't be bothered to try
and figure it all out. FWIW I would have used the term baluster for a
large diameter spindle, generally used outdoors and often made of stone.
This is not to be confused with Newel post which is the large diameter
post at the top and bottom of the stairs. Bannister OTOH I always took
to be the hand rail.
But checking my British English dictionary, banister (one 'n') is a
stair rail with its supports (ie the whole assembly). Baluster is a
small pillar supporting a stair rail or parapet coping. Balustrade is a
row of balusters.
So I hope Dick will clarify what he means by baluster by telling us the
application, then we can properly help him out even if we call them
something else. Is it fat ones or thin ones you want, Dick?
Getting back to Arch's musing, I guess it boils down to having a formal
education in these matters, rather than recalling being told by one's
parents to stop sliding down the banister then making assumptions about
what a banister really was. Maybe they didn't know either.
--
Derek Andrews, woodturner
http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com
http://chipshop.blogspot.com - a blog for my customers
http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com/TheToolrest/ - a blog for woodturners
Dick
those who wanted to sell me something. So thanks for sorting out a few
sites - I hoped there were better Googlers than I.
About the word "baluster" and all the other stair/balustrade/banister
parts. When I typed my initial request I considered further
explanation but then thought that people who did not know the word
would either be unable to help or would look it up. Your actions prove
the point and many of you have learned something.
As for the purpose, that is a little irrelevant as all I need is to see
shapes. If they are too fat or too tall, I can change that.
In fact, we have making a baluster as our term project at South
Auckland Woodturners Guild. In our clubrooms we have raised seating
for about 70 people to watch demonstrations and the final end of the
baluster project is that the currently painted 2x4 hand rails at each
end are replaced by a banister.
Derek Andrews
> As for the purpose, that is a little irrelevant as all I need is to see
> shapes. If they are too fat or too tall, I can change that.
In that case, check out http://www.old-basing.co.uk/page2.html and the
other 8 pages of pictures.
I posted a brief blog post about it here:
http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com/TheToolrest/2005/11/stair-spindles.html
Ken Moon
"Arch" <al...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:9197-440...@storefull-3175.bay.webtv.net...
OT, but in response, my daughter was taken aback when she found out that
"wind chill" was not the front glass on the car! {:-)
Ken Moon
Webberville, TX.