Stair railing started

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but the work continues just at a slower pace. There are only two of us working these days. Actually one of us...Katy does a lot of sleeping and watching. Her job is to remind me when lunch is near and when it's time to go home.

It took the better part of a day to add all of the top and bottom rails to the stair posts. Some of the posts are made of milled pine while some are natural trees that require some special care to attach the rails.

The trick is getting the posts aligned along a rough uneven tree surface. After some careful thought and slow going it worked well.

Each section is dependent upon the section above it. The round post (to the left) is a pivotal post. I had to remove it several times to be able to insert the lower post. The top post went in a bit easier because I could move the top of the rough post slightly to allow the tenon to drop into the mortise.

The photo to the right shows the nearly completed stair system. The next step is to take it all apart, rough up all of the elements and then reassemble it using construction glue and final bolting. Each of the bolt holes will be filled with a plug of similar material that hides the bolt.




I'll start installing the twigs tomorrow. I suspect it will be a 2-3 day project. Each piece is selected to fit, cut and mortised into final position.


While in Oregon last summer, we visited a group of cabins built by the Steiner family. Steiner and two sons built a number of the area cabins in the early 1900's. They used material harvested off of the property and tools that were by today's standards 'primitive'. Remarkably the finished product is a work of art.

More coming,
z