A spiral is not a simple curve, it is actually a twisted curve (as you will see later). This particular handrail is going to measure 2 1/4″ wide, by 2 5/8″ tall. Since it is a twisted curve, it needs to come out of 16/4 (4 inch thick) mahogany.

We first mark the oversized curves and cut them out on the bandsaw. This blank is oversized to allow for the twist in the curve.

Next, we place the curve on a form (a mockup of the real staircase) and mark on the ends, to a level line, where the finished curve will be. Then, using a template, we mark the top and bottom curves by matching up to the corners drawn on the ends.

We cut to these new lines on the bandsaw. The lines cross over each other, so we have to tilt the material as it goes through the bandsaw, and stop occasionally to make sure we haven’t gone too far. Once the lines meet up (normally very close to the middle of the curve), we turn it around and cut the same way from the other end. When we are done with this step, it should look like a parallelogram from the ends.

The sides of the curve are then cleaned up by hand with belt sanders and power planes. If you look at the first picture, you can see that it doesn’t sit flat on the form. We then bandsaw the top and bottom in a similar fashion to the sides, and clean them up the same way. Some special care is taken to get it to fit on the form well (as you can see it does in the second picture).
Note: The form we use is on the center line of the stair radius and its incline describes the “run and rise” of the staircase. Its width is that of the steel channel that the railing will sit on.

Here you see the 3 stages of the curve blanks. The rough blank is on bottom, the blank finished on the sides in the middle, and the finished blank on top. In the second picture you can see that the finished blank is not a simple curve, as it doesn’t sit flat on the blank below it.

From this point, we shape the curves by hand on a router table (the pictures are from another part of the same handrail, the process is basically the same).

Because of having to steer the curve over the router table by hand, you end up with some inconsistancies over the length of the curve. We then take sandpaper, chisels, scrapers, spoke shaves, rasps, and die grinders, and blend the shape by hand. Each section (approximately 3 1/2 feet) of the spiral takes four to six hours before it is ready to be installed.

Here are some pictures of the installed handrail.

This article was reprinted on Woodweb

This was a challenge. Two staircases, four floors  (8 runs) of railings. The contractor called us less than a month before the customer was due to move in. The rail had to encase a 1/2″ x 1″ bronze channel that was supposed to be done before we got there. It wasn’t. The iron guy was new at it and we made him redo about 80% of it due to uneven curves or it being out of level.   If the ironwork isn’t level the railing profile will be distorted.

There are no easements or newel posts so the railing had to be continuous from top to bottom. The joints were to be smooth. The idea was to be able to put your hand on the railing at the top and never let go until you get to the bottom, while never feeling joints on the way down. All of the joints were done with  5/16″ rail bolts. We had a bandsaw, several routers, router jigs, custom router bits and lots of hand tools on site. We worked for about 21 days to finish on time. These pictures are with the railing having only one sealer coat. If you’ve seen our post about making curved handrailing you’ll know that Mike spent many days just fitting the blanks onto the bronze channel before we were able to do any shaping.

Originally we were to just supply the wood for this project; the aromatic red cedar stringers and risers and the ash treads. That changed when the carpenter sort of messed up. He had gaps where there shouldn’t have been gaps.  “Could we help”?

Mike did a CAD drawing of the special cove moulding where the tread meets the stringer and we had the pieces made on a CNC router. The pieces made on the CNC router matched the straight cove material we had made.  I think the overall effect is pretty nice. I haven’t seen this done anywhere before. The white oak handrail starts at an ash partition.  The partition is mounted on a steel sub-frame with poplar blocking. Aluminum “Z” clips provide a nice fastener-free panel. The meeting joint between the panels and at the end cap is an ash spline.  It’s finished with an aromatic red cedar cap.

The owners gave us a challenge in this piece. They wanted something made to fit a space but look like it was found in pieces in their barn and put together.

Aromatic red cedar, cut on the owner’s farm was used for the substantial base of this piece. We used our hand tools on this one. Full mortise and tenon joinery,  along with hand cut pegs with offset holes are the only thing holding it together. That’s all it needs.

The upper section, also of red cedar is entirely hand scrub planed including its tongue & groove back.

The top is a full 2-1/2” thick, made of reclaimed heart poplar floor joists and we decided to take advantage of the rat eaten edge. It has a true breadboard end with full through, pegged tenons. Naturally, it’s scrub planed too. Although we ran the crown on our molder, it too has been hit with hand planes to give an old feel. The hammered copper sink fits in a carved recess for proper drainage. Its plumbing is hidden behind more hand run tongue & groove. The slat deck is fastened with hand cut nails.

Finished with spar varnish this piece of furniture will out last us all.

The customer wanted a unit that was ergonomically designed to allow for good traffic movement through the room.

Because of the door to the left, the unit needed to be narrow on that end and widen to accommodate a TV and widen further for the armoire on the right.

The cabinet is constructed of ash plywood and solid ash, having the outside corners lock mitered. We prefer this to having seams showing where the face frame is attached.

All doors are made of 3/4″ solid ash and contain 1/2″  solid ash panels. The doors are hung on 165° European hinges. The drawers and pull outs are of dovetailed Maple. The 2” top is of reclaimed heart poplar, scrub planed. The 5/8” accent inlay and the butterfly inlays on the counter top are of aromatic red cedar.

Cedar also caps the baseboard and stepped cornice. The finish is clear conversion varnish.

This cabinet was designed to stand between the aromatic red cedar entry doors and the walnut entertainment center,  so we chose to use both woods in its design.  Its footprint is hexagonal to mimic the floor plan of the room and the custom entry door handles.

The walnut stiles have been plowed out with a custom router bit to trap the 3/8″ rope lighting which runs continuously through the cabinet (about 45 feet). The  3/4″ shelves have 1-1/2″ solid edges made up of walnut and aromatic red cedar, coved down to a 3/8″ thickness at the outside edge to give a lighter appearance.  The pair of doors have a tongue and groove astrigal to insure that they stay aligned and to prevent light leaks. They are held closed with rare earth magnets.  Some things we especially like about this unit are the hand turned walnut and aromatic red cedar dimmer switch knob and my walnut and cedar acorn door pulls.

“THERE IS AN INNATE VIBRANCE IN THIS COUNTRY that will prevail through all our times of weak leadership, economic confusion, gutless politicians.  Recession or depression, there is a pioneer strength in this country that is very much alive.  Whatever comes is momentary — even though the “moment” is a year or two — and those, especially those who can work in a craftsman-like manner with their hands, will not only endure — but will be the first to surface in the good times — like a crocus in the spring.”

Wallace M. Kunkel

This desk was made to fit against a window wall in a hexagonal home office. Mike drew this desk in AutoCAD, so we were able to make a template of the top including the position of each leg in relation to the skirt. This allowed us to lay out all of the joinery, in place, on the template, eliminating errors that might happen if done another way.

The skirt of the desk was done as vacuum laminations of two 1/8” layers of cedar onto a core of solid heart  poplar. 3/4” was ripped off the top edge of the skirt and the drawer fronts were cut from the remaining. Then the 3/4″ ripping was re glued to it’s mating piece. In that way we were able to keep the grain continuous and the gaps at the sides of the drawer fronts tighter.

The legs were joined to the skirts using hand cut mortise and tenon joinery. The drawers are of course, hand dovetailed.

The top is 2” thick black walnut cut from the owner’s farm. It is two book matched slabs scrub planed with hand eased edges. The two slabs meet at a corner in the wall, at a 75° angle. They are joined with a tongue and groove joint and hanger bolts. The finish is hand rubbed lacquer.

]]> http://www.kunkelandson.com/?feed=rss2&p=418 0 http://www.kunkelandson.com/?p=385 http://www.kunkelandson.com/?p=385#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:27:45 +0000 Marc Kunkel http://www.kunkelandson.com/?p=385

This contemporary stone home had a unique way of bringing the outside in. Two stone walls turned in towards each other, making a ten foot wide alley.
The idea was to put a wall of glass there to separate the inside from out. Our solution was to build a sub frame of white oak and clad it with aromatic red cedar. The glass is 1/2” insulated , lo UV .
Not sure that the cedar would hold its stability, we decided to make the door and side lite parts in the stave core or engineered stile method. The cores of the parts are of quarter-sawn Spanish cedar, clad with 1/8” aromatic red cedar flitches and 3/4” solid edges.
The unique handles are hexagonal in cross section with an inlaid walnut accent stripe. The handles are mounted on custom-made brass standoffs, with Gaboon ebony plugs to hide the set screws.

This 18 foot wide by 8 foot tall unit constructed of American black walnut solid and veneer, has a 1-1/2” solid slab top with a natural edge.

An interesting element of this piece is that it sits a half inch off the floor and a half inch from the ceiling. These void areas are air intake and returns. Hidden in the center soffit are two 6” flex ducted fans that draw air from the heated floor and exhaust it at the ceiling. There are also two 2” ducts that draw heat from the center TV cabinet. The lock mitered columns enclose the ductwork.

The curved upper doors and their laminated walnut and cherry track are on a 511” radius to follow the natural edge of the top. The track is suspended from column to column with no other support.

The cherry trolley wheels were cut on a CNC router with grooves cut by hand on a lathe. The wheels rotate on ball bearing hubs.

This unit was pre finished with conversion varnish.