Showerthought: The old courthouse in my town taught me something about joinery

I had to go down to the county courthouse in Salem last week to pull a permit. While I was waiting, I really looked at the main staircase. It's this huge, curved thing built around 1910. What got me was the handrail. It's a single piece of oak that must be 20 feet long, with a perfect, gentle curve all the way up. No seams, no splices. I stood there for ten minutes trying to figure out how they bent that much wood without it cracking. It made me think about how we do things now. We'd probably laminate three pieces or use a bunch of short sections with scarf joints. They just had one perfect piece. It makes you respect the old growth timber they had back then, and the patience it took. Has anyone else seen an old building detail that made you rethink a modern shortcut?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly3321mo ago

My buddy's an electrician and he was rewiring this pre-war apartment building... he found the original knob and tube runs were wrapped in this thick, cloth insulation that was still perfect after 90 years. The modern plastic stuff they had him replacing it with felt cheap by comparison. He said it was kinda sad to rip it out.

anderson.gavin1mo ago

My grandpa's barn has floorboards over two feet wide, just one solid piece. They don't even make trees that big anymore. Makes you wonder what else we've lost.

alicec866d ago

Damn, that's actually kind of heartbreaking. Two feet wide solid piece, that's just incredible craftsmanship we'll never see again.