Timber Frame Hand Rails (Part II)

Here are pictures of the finished 3rd floor timber frame hand rail. This first picture was taken from the stairwell, and the eyebrow dormer can be seen to the right.

My wife applied three or four coats of oil based polyurethane before I installed the black iron balusters. I discovered this style of baluster at Lowes several months ago and bought enough of them to do the 2nd floor hand rail. Because we needed several of these balusters throughout the house (we plan to use them in the stairwell), we searched on line and found them cheaper. We gave the local Lowes a chance to price match, but the manager on duty declined. So we ordered them online, and to our great surprise, the online balusters were solid iron, whereas the ones from Lowes had been hollow. I'm glad they didn't price match after all! (Too bad both brands are made in China - I would have spent more for some made in the USA if we could have found them.)

This second picture was taken from the 3rd floor tower. The arched braces in the foreground are curly maple, and the floor in the background is hickory. In the far background is our stucco chimney and a hammer beam truss.

I took this third picture to show off the 3/4" pegs in the post. I made the pegs by whittling down some leftover 1" pegs. I thought the 1" pegs were too big in proportion to this 6x6 post.