Arch wrote:
Funny how a local community's provincial use of words stays with you all
your life. I started to suggest that Dick just drive down the street and
look at porch railings, but something made me look it up first.

Until today I had thought balusters were for inside stairs and
bannisters were for outside porch rails ....wrong! I found out there's
no real difference. My concepts about davenports & sofas, settees &
chesterfields were also off the mark. I have missed the target with many
others.
Any of you ever been taken aback on finding a long and firmly held
concept was wrong? What were you mistaken about? Purists can limit
their errors of conception to woodturning if OT is too painful.

I'm glad you brought this up Arch. I was going to wade in with some
links, until I discovered that what the pages showed were what I would
have called stair spindles.

I figured it was a British / USA thing and couldn't be bothered to try
and figure it all out. FWIW I would have used the term baluster for a
large diameter spindle, generally used outdoors and often made of stone.
This is not to be confused with Newel post which is the large diameter
post at the top and bottom of the stairs. Bannister OTOH I always took
to be the hand rail.

But checking my British English dictionary, banister (one 'n') is a
stair rail with its supports (ie the whole assembly). Baluster is a
small pillar supporting a stair rail or parapet coping. Balustrade is a
row of balusters.

So I hope Dick will clarify what he means by baluster by telling us the
application, then we can properly help him out even if we call them
something else. Is it fat ones or thin ones you want, Dick?

Getting back to Arch's musing, I guess it boils down to having a formal
education in these matters, rather than recalling being told by one's
parents to stop sliding down the banister then making assumptions about
what a banister really was. Maybe they didn't know either.

--
Derek Andrews, woodturner

http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com
http://chipshop.blogspot.com - a blog for my customers
http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com/TheToolrest/ - a blog for woodturners