Info on building rustic railings?

[Ernest T. Bass]

Hi all,

We have all the tools for making rustic furniture, including mortise and tenon cutters, so I'd like to try making a rustic balustrade for our new staircase, like the kind you typically see on log homes. Unfortunately, I'm having a heck of a time trying to find any information on the topic. Does anyone have any good websites to point me to? I need to know a few things, such as how to lay out the spacing of the spindles on the sloped staircase, as well as some basic construction advice as far as piecing it together and working with the round poles.

Also, why does it seem that rustic spindles don't typically go down to the stair treads, as with conventional milled spindles, but rather to a second rail? Does this have to do with the spacing of the thicker-than-normal spindles?

Thanks,
Andrew

[John Raabe]

I don't have any links for forming the rustic parts of a staircase, but can help with some general information on stairs. In most codes the railing and spindle spacing on a stair is setup to keep a small head from getting caught in the space between these elements. (Babies have died on earlier stairs.)

Most codes use a 4" diameter sphere to test this.

You can get more information from the Resource section of the forum where there is a link to the visual stair code of the IRC.