I am working on a custom staircase and I’m looking for a way to terminate the end of an OTP handrail with a curled end. I thought I had seen something like this before, but I have not been able to find anything now. Has anyone else seen a “snail-like” termination for a handrail. Essentially it would be a tightly curved “volute” that curves in the vertical plane instead of horizontal. Based on the tight curl, the profile of the handrail will have to change as it progresses through the “snail curl.” I’m sure I will have to make my own, because the handrail is mahogany and all custom made, but I was hoping to find some examples for my design. My web searches have been fruitless, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Craig
Replies
Well, I'm baffled. maybe you could use a rise and run equation. Set it on paper,on a grid. Kinda like making an arched doorway. Geometry has to have an answer.
After I posted the original question, I remembered that I should have checked the ultimate staircase book in my library, "Treatise on Stairbuilding & Handrailing." Fortunately, it has a fairly detailed description of how to design a "Scroll" with the suggested proportions. It looks like it will require a significant amount of handcarving, but it will be an appropriate detail to finish a rather complex staircase. I'm guessing this will be the last piece finished, and the rest of the job will be waiting on it, so I need to get started soon. Thanks.
Craig
"Treatise on Stairbuilding & Handrailing."
That's a superb book. I bought it about 4 years ago when I was building my own staircases. Not being a stairbuilder myself it lost me a few times and I had to reread some sections repeatedly until I got a handle on it. If I remember right it has been in print for about a hundred years and also has a section on stair building on vessels.
You reminded me that I lent it out over a year ago and haven't received it back yet. A phone call is in order, thanks.
Ditch
You have done well by remembering who you lent it out to.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
It sounds like you already have what you need, but just FYI Coffman has at least two fittings like what you describe - they call it a vertical volute and one goes with their 7000 series Traditional handrail and one for the 7800 series Art Deco handrails.
http://www.coffmanstairs.com
snail like.......
go to a french restaurant and order escargo.
take haome one of the shells
use the shell as a model for carving your own
no turn left unstoned
Craig the the turn you are describing and looking for is most commonly refereed
to as a "vertical volute" and Nick has pointed out. It's one of those
parts that most stair manufacturers just don't seem to make. Years ago when
we had a hard time finding one for a project we made our own and that expanded
in to our making even more specialized hard to find parts such as helical
easings and now it seems most of the railing profiles we install are our
own designs too.
If you are actually thinking of getting into the custom fabrication and installation
of hard to find parts you will find that it can be very very lucrative. Over
the last two years we have a 96% closing ratio on the railing projects we've
been asked to look at primarily because we are the only ones that the person
contacting us can find who can or will make the one part that most stair shops
wont or can't provide. And our margins for that kind of work are very high.
The key is marketing that kind of service to contractors and designer who have
the projects that need that kind of unique fabrication and/or installation.
As you mentioned in your initial post "I'm sure I will have to make my
own" and you are probably very correct in that determination. Like I said
they are very very hard to locate and come by. Fortunately for you mahogany
is one of the easier woods to shape. What tools were you thinking of working
with? To me the most important one is a Dremel or Dremel like tool with a wide
variety of bits, sanding drums, and flap wheels. I actually keep several Dremels
in service so I don't have to keep changing bits, I can just swap tools.
The "snail shape" you are referring to we call a "nautilus".
When the wide top part of a railing profile wraps around and decreases in size
tucking under and into itself. A vertical volute doesn't necessarily have to
do that.
Clicking
here will take you to a page with a view of a "nautilus" we made
for one of our projects.
Clicking
here will take you to a view of a very small but plain vertical volute where
the top body part of the doesn't really decrease and tuck under much. Clicking
on the next button on that page will take you to the vertical
volute as it was installed. On that project the railing termination was
changed three times until the homeowner found what she really liked and wanted.
We didn't mind in that we got paid each time we fabricated and installed a new
piece. This particular railing originally ended in a "lambs
tongue" which is what I personally thought looked best.
Clicking
here will take you to a picture on a Utah based stair and railing company's
site where they show what they call a "scroll end". The the top parts
grows as it wraps around and I thought it was a really unique kool idea. It
ended up inspiring one vertical volute I did a few months ago where it looked
like the volute was crushed sort of like the front end of a car in a crash.
The wrapping around was sort of freeform and abstract. Sorry but I haven't posted
it to our web site yet so there are no pictures of it for you to see but I thought
it looked unique and interesting.
In addition to Mowats Treatise
on Stair Building & Handrailing there are several pattern books out
there that have diagrams and patterns for various "vertical volutes".
I forget what covered on it in Mawats book but from my own experience with something
simple and small like a vertical volute I think you can forget or ignore all
the math and geometrical calculations and just sketch or draw out a 1"=1"
elevation of what looks good to your eye, make a couple of photocopies of it,
attach one of the photocopied patterns to you mahogany wood blank and give it
a go. While all that geometry is essential to use and understand in the layout
of a larger volute in the case of a small vertical volute it much more thought
and work than you should need to put in.
Craig I'm also thinking if you like Mowat's book you might also want to check
out A
Simplified Guide to Custom Stairbuilding and Tangent Handrailing by George
R. Di Cristina. Same stuff in this book too only this book was written in 1994
not 1900.
I also just flipped through (albeit briefly) my Treatise on Stair Building
& Handrailing and I didn't really see anything specifically on vertical
volutes. What was it you found? What pages? Flipping through I also thought
of something else that's important too. You also need to be careful with some
of the Mowat patterns in that in the sections on scroll terminals (pgs.234-237)
many of the patterns he's drawn there would longer pass code in that where the
scroll wraps around there is a "V" shaped gap that could be looked
at as a potential finger or clothing catch .
"Architecture is the
handwriting of Man." - Bernard
Maybeck.