A top view of the curved stairs that will need a curved railing. (3/30/06)

The rough cap is fitted for the second step. There was quite a bit of finagling to get the cap to fit just right. (3/30/06)

A view of the balusters as seen coming up the stairs. (4/10/06)

Rather then test the wood bend on the $200 oak bending rail, I cut 2-1/2" strips of a thin plywood called Luan and glued it up as a dress rehearsal. Of course, Luan bends much easier than oak. (4/12/06)

Bending rail is a sandwich of multiple pieces of wood that allows it to bend easily. There is no need to soak or steam the wood. The pieces have a notch, or 'key', that helps to prevent the pieces from sliding out of alignment. (4/12/06)

I clamped the bending rail up for a few days before applying glue. There is tremendous pressure to straighten out once the rail is bent. Any tendency to remain bent that can be introduced ahead of time can only help, but in practice, it probably doesn't make much difference. It does offer the opportunity to practice the clamp-up. It took 45 minutes to clamp the first time, but 15 minutes for the glue to set. Doing multiple rounds sped up and improved the process. (4/14/06)

The rail is clamped up to the braces screwed to the step. By clamping along this line, and keeping the rail tight against the step, the rail will match the curve and angle of the steps themselves. (4/18/06)

The dark lines come from glue that was squeezed out of the joints when the clamps were tightened down. It's a dark color because it is designed to take stain on darker wood. (4/18/06)

Because the top of the rail has to be within 3/4" from the edge (where it is mounted to an oval piece of oak to be mounted to the wall), extra care was required to keep all slices as tight as possible. In practice runs the outer edges pulled too far from the wall, but everything worked fine in the final run. (4/18/06)

I bought a bunch of clamps and borrowed a bunch more. There are 27 clamps on the rail. I had a couple more that I could have put on, but it took too long to go back and pick up the last few spots were clamps could have fit. (4/18/06)

Most of the clamps have been removed. The rail sprung back out a bit at the bottom, so it no longer matches the curve of the stairs exactly - as I suppose I should have predicated. It's not too bad though; it should work fine with a few minor adjustments. (4/20/06)

All the clamps and the wax paper (used to prevent the clamping blocks from sticking to the rail) have been removed, and the rail is ready for cleanup. (4/20/06)