Manual of Purpose-Made Woodworking Joinery

Designing, setting out and making stairs 117

Tapered steps with a wreathed

handrail

Figure 6.47: This part- elevation and plan view of a

quarter- turn tapered stair, rising up from a living

room and serving a galleried landing and a doorway to

the upper, split- level part of the house, was an actual

working drawing of a conversion job I did on a house

I once occupied in 1994. Originally, the living room

had a 6- tread straight stair- flight and a small landing

that served only the doorway. Because of a desire to

create a feature staircase, the challenge was to design a

stair that met the regulations, had 6 treads and 7 risers

(the same as the original, because the storey- height

cannot be changed and dictates the number of risers)

and last, but not least, was attractive.

After several preliminary sketches, the final layout

evolved and was then drawn to a 1:25 scale (because

this suited A4 sized paper) and – eventually – made

by hand, with the aid of portable- powered and fixed

machines – including a lathe for turning the newel

posts. The balusters (or spindles, if you prefer) were

bought from a parts- manufacturer and the main

features of their shape were used in the newel- design.

One of the unique features of the staircase was that

the plywood risers and apron linings to the galleried

landing were pierced with a repetitive tracery pattern,

as illustrated. This pattern also pierced the bottom

tapered step and its bullnose- end. Note that the short,

outer string is wreathed and it has a wreathed handrail

above it.

Easing of Strings

Figures 6.46(a)(b): As can be seen in Figures 6.45 and
6.46, when an arrangement of tapered treads meets
the continuous wall string or strings that house the
parallel treads of an integrated flight of stairs, the line
of nosings spreads out and either breaks through the
top or the bottom of the string. This is more notice-
able in Figure 6.46, where the primary positions
of the strings’ edges are shown as unbroken- and
broken- lines. Of course, these wider housings are not
allowed to actually ‘break through’ and, where neces-
sary, the strings are built up in width (edge- jointed)
and these built- up edges are shaped to form so- called
‘easings’.
An easing can be a concave or convex shape and
is first plotted when the strings of tapered treads are
developed from the plan view drawn on the white-
painted rods. By keeping the established top- margin
in mind, a flexible piece of material (a narrow strip of
hardboard, plywood or plastic trim) is used as a flexi-
curve drawing- aid to mark the desired easing- shape.
This is best done with one person flexing the drawing-
aid to pre- plotted margin- marks, whilst another
person marks the easing line.

*Temporary

timber props

*

*

Figure 6.46(a) In this stair arrangement, built- up edges
were required on top of the continuous wall string, on the
under- edge of the outer string (close to the newel post)
and on the top and under- edge of the short, return wall-
string.

Return

string

Square

winder

Half

Kite winder

Half Kite winder

Outerstring

parallel stepFirst

Skew winder

Easing

Easing

Broken lines

indicate joints

of built-up

boards

Wall string

Figure 6.46(b) Note that the under- edge piece, beneath

the left- hand, vertical tongue- and- grooved corner joint, is

not shaped (because it is concealed), but concave and

convex easings have been applied elsewhere.

(b)

(a)