Thursday, December 18, 2008

Fondelling My Volute

Last March at our local Chili Cook-Off event I met someone who was a self described fan of this blog. Sometime in May or June he and his wife got a tour of the "Old Crack House" and he was telling me about his woodworking ability. So I whipped out my volute and handed it to his wife. "Can he match this?" I wondered as she held the thing with both of her hands.

Now before you all start commenting about being a pervert you need to know what a "Volute" is. Raise your hand if you know.....

A volute in our case is the spiral end of the stair rail that sits on top of the newel post. The very tip of which is missing!

The gentleman volunteered to try his best at replicating a volute for us and I must add that he has surpassed all expectations. As a result he needs to be showered in praises. Especially because he offered to do this for us for the sheer pleasure of helping us out and the challenge to try his hand at some carving.

Here is the end result resting in place;




I wasn't worried about the wood matching because there is so much filling of divots and cracks with putty to be done on the original wood that I am going to have to tint the shellac that I apply to this rail so the original cherry is going to be masked anyway.
So, if you are impressed, let his wife know. She has her own blog you can leave comments on.
I don't know for sure but seeing this thing lying on her kitchen counter every day for several months may have something to do with one of her latest announcements ....

9 comments:

kevin said...

Hot damn!

Christopher Busta-Peck said...

I love the detail on the stairs, and underneath the volute - wow.

Anonymous said...

Now, That is just beautiful. I also love your blog. Thanks for all your tips on shellac.

Susan

Amanda Moran said...

Ha! Gary, if you want to think your volute sitting on my kitchen counter stirred our passions...well, as long as you don't ask for naming rights...you just go right ahead.

I do wish we had a staircase as beautiful as yours, it will be a real treat to pay another visit and see the finished product.

Anonymous said...

Your staircase is fabulous! And yes, the guy who reproduced the volute did a great job.
I will love to see this staircase finished.

Jocelyn said...

I just learned a new word and the volute looks great.

Unknown said...

Any crackhouse that has a volute has to be a doggone classy place!

StuccoHouse said...

Wow, that looks great!

Anonymous said...

Nice detailed structure for the stairs. Volute spiral design is also nice.

Thanks,
Sherlyn