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FREDERICK J. DRAKE & CO., Publishers of
Hodgson’s “Modern Carpentry,” “Common-Sense Handrailing,” etc.
Common-Sense Handrailings and How to Build Them
By FRED T. HODGSON
ILLUSTRATED
This new volume contains three distinct treatises on the subject, each of which is complete in itself. The system of forming the lines for obtaining the various curves, wreaths, ramps and face moulds for handrails are the simplest in use and those employed by the most successful handrailers. Mr. Hodgson has placed this unusually intricate subject before his readers in a very plain and easily understood manner, and any workman having a fair knowledge of “lines” and who can construct an ordinary straight stairway can readily grasp the whole system of “handrailing” after a small study of this work.
The building of stairs and properly making and placing over them a graceful handrail and suitable balusters and newel posts is one of the greatest achievements of the joiner’s art and skill, yet it is an art that is the least understood of any of the constructive processes the carpenter or joiner is called upon to accomplish. In but very few of the plans made by an architect are the stairs properly laid down or divided off; indeed, most of the stairs as laid out and planned by the architect, are impossible ones owing to the fact that the circumstances that govern the formation of the rail, are either not understood, or not noticed by the designer, and the expert handrailer often finds it difficult to conform the stairs and rail to the plan. Generally, however, he gets so close to it that the character or the design is seldom changed.
The stairs are the great feature of a building as they are the first object that meets the visitor and claims his attention, and it is essential, therefore, that the stair and its adjuncts should have a neat and graceful appearance, and this can only be accomplished by having the rail properly made and set up.
This little book gives such instructions in the art of handrailing as will enable the young workman to build a rail so that it will assume a handsome appearance when set in place. There are eleven distinct styles of stairs shown, but the same principle that governs the making of the simplest rail, governs the construction of the most difficult, so, once having mastered the simple problems in this system, progress in the art will become easy, and a little study and practice will enable the workman to construct a rail for the most tortuous stairway.