The quality of work that I find on this discussion inspires and humbles me. Here is my latest house project. I started with rough cut quarter sawn white oak. There is a local guy who mills his own wood at a very reasonable price and quality that I have not found anywhere in the Midwest. The treads are bookmatched down the center. I was intimidated to cut the standard returns in these treads that I spent so much time bookmatching, planing, and most importantly PAYING FOR, so I tried arcing the ends of the treads at a 15″ radius. I rather like it.
I added a pic of my workspace as comparison to Stan Foster’s stunning work and workspace. 🙂
Look forward to any feedback.
Cheers.
Lloyd Cledwyn
St. Paul, MN
Replies
That is some nice work there. I absolutely love quartersawn. What are your plans for the hand rail?
"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -Elbert Hubbard-
Well this is an interesting question. The reason that the stairs are so wide (4'3") is that I built new utility stairs to the basement and my old house has 2' thick limestone foundation that comes in about 11" from the interior face of the wall. So to have 36" wide stairs going to the basement, the stairs going to the second floor have to be that much wider. The opening at the top of the stairs however is still the original 38" wide. My leading idea before installing them was to install the railing and stiles in about 10" from the ends of the stairs. But now that they are in I am thinking that we should install a railing against the wall (until we sell or have kids) to leave the entire width of the stairs visually uninterrupted.
Any thoughts?
I attached two pics to show the difference in tread width and our concept of where the railing and newl post would go. (All qtr sawn as well).
Those stairs are beautiful. Qtr'd White Oak is one of my favorite woods. I really like the radiused ends of the treads...nice touch!I don't understand! I cut it twice and it's still too short!
Soooo we all want to know. Did the cat in the first picture make the jump???Who Dares Wins.
Beautiful wood, and really nice work. If you won't get into doo-doo with your insurer, I think the idea of leaving the rail at the wallside for now is great. If you can't play a sport, be one.
Y'know, he never did bother with jumping down. That was a long night though as the wife would not let me just hoist her up stairs to go to bed and I mis-cut the stringers once.
I think that she was actually singing a song as I finally laid down the temporary treads and screwed them fast at 2:30 in the morning in order to get upstairs to our bed.
The cat did not care. He had food and litter, plus free reign of the second floor. :)
Cheers
Cledwyn
Lloyd: Nice work....
Nice tongue ends on those!
Now put it in your will that any furture owners who paint those treads will be cursed with the curse of slivers in their toenails for life, making them unable to walk on the steps and with the curse of slivers in the eyes, making them unable to see any other beauty for the beauty they have covered up.
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin
Yea but how is anybody going to "discover" the great wood under the paint if they dont get painted?
Doug