Fiddling with Newel Post while the Rose burns. On March 12 the Rose Inn in
Lansing NY burned. One of it's main features was the stair. I always
harbored the hope that Kens grandpa Rose had built this beautiful circular
stair. From Jack Jensen of  The Ithaca Journal "The legend is well known
around here. The rose Inn began it's life as an early Italianate home,
designed for Abram Osmun, with a beautiful spiral staircase as it's
epicenter. But no local builder would tackle the stairs. So the Osmuns,
despite there wealth,continued to use the back stairs, until one day in
1922, when William Houser stepped into history carrying a bindle and a
toolbox on his back.
    He agreed to build the staircase in exchange for room and board at the
magnificent home. It took him two years . Then he simply stepped back out of
history."
This stair was a rock, a snake, DNA.     Mah Tov
"As a builder you try your whole life to create just one perfect thing.
Nothing ever comes out just right- our lives, our projects, our
relationships' our kids or our legacies. Always some misstep some
regret"again Jensen.
    Dirt , to wood to ashes
    My friend and mentor Tyke Kohm died April 10  I'm sure some of you knew
him.
    "Tike Kohm passed away the other day. He never owned a boat. He didn't
kill anyone. He kept a clean hearth. You all know the rest. ------ He taught
his son how to love baseball, he taught his daughter how to love life and
self. No charitable contributions; do something nice for yourself. Peace and
Amen "
    by Tike awhile before he died.
    Tike was a wonderful carpenter in the real sense of wonderful. Sometimes
you just wondered what he was doing, like the 12x12- 2 story addition to his
airstream trailer. In my house are 2 14' stainglass windows Tike presented
us with on our wedding day.
    As for that stairway- go ahead take it apart. Just figure out the order
of assembly and reverse. Label everything, document everything, if you get
in trouble call Bill Houser or Tike Kohm.
 PS my daughter 11 says Carpe Diem = sees the day
see you later ctb

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gabriel Orgrease" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: [BP] Fiddling with Newel Post


> John Callan wrote:
>
> > Ken,
> >
> > Given that this is a significant staircase in a significant building,
> > what kind of experience and qualifications would be needed for the
> > person supervising this work?  How many helpers and what are their
> > qualifications?  What are the risks that historic material will be
> > damaged beyond repair?
> >
> > Is this something that a typical (if there is such a thing) historic
> > site maintenance crew can handle if only the curators trusted the
> > skills of the reluctantly verbal members of our community?
> >
> > -jc
>
> Put it this way John... in both of the examples that I have been working
> on in neither case would I give over the task to another mechanic than
> myself. Let alone supervision while standing nearby watching, or far
> away thinking. I would not want to stand there and supervise anyone but
> the best, and I only know 1/2 of a person for that (and I think they
> should be proud). In each case there are reasons for intimacy between
> the supervision and execution within the confines of one brain and one
> body that preclude division of labor. So, I guess the qualifications
> start with needing a master mechanic with proven experience and an
> ability to see 'outside' of the box to understand the nontangibles of
> the project. As to # of helpers, seems to me as few as possible and only
> enough that the master mechanic can keep control of the situation. No
> naked dumb & bumbler allowed.
>
> What you need to do is pick the right person to do the job, and so the
> qualifications should I would think focus on just how to qualify the
> master mechanic desired... and an oral and hands-on examination should
> be considered on-site... interview whomever at the railing and ask them
> what they think about it and how they would do it... go watch them do
> work elsewhere and see how they flow... which brings up something I have
> been contemplating which is the degree to which a mechanic is so tuned
> into their work, the objects, and the materials that they are working
> with that they talk dirty to them while working as in, "Baby, please
> don't f'n do that! Here, here you go, there, yeah, that is where I want
> you. Stay there now. Don't move. Yeah, that is nice." It is something of
> a wake up call when the mechanic realizes the very nice middle-class
> suburbanite docents are standing behind them to watch and listen the
> whole time. We are talking engagement in the task and focus.
>
> Have it in the specs that if you, or whomever, is not satisfied with the
> interview scenario then somebody has to go back to scratch. You may try
> qualification of 30 years experience rather than the paper-wash of 5
> years? I don't know for sure. If you end up with an idiot you will know
> it soon enough, if you end up with someone that knows what they are
> doing you might not notice. Then, again, it depends on if you stand
> around eves dropping.
>
> In the case of the stone rail & newel it would take longer to explain
> what needed to be done to lift it, which was 90% of the job, than it
> took to actually do it. The work after that was easy enough but it could
> still be messed up by a mechanic that did not take care, understand what
> was going on, or why, and had no patience or experience. Too damned much
> time is spent explaining WHY something has to be done in a particular
> way and I'll be honest in saying that the minute I have to explain my
> explanation then I might as well do it myself. The risk of damage to
> historic fabric is too high for the communications process to interfere
> with it. I say this considering that I have been involved in some fairly
> complex management situations on projects.
>
> In the case of the wooden stair it was not so much a problem of
> disassembly as much as making sure the parts needed to be salvaged for
> reconstruction were salvaged... meaning that the vital information was
> not lost in the process. Photographs were taken, the process went slowly
> step by step and the exploration of the structure occured concurrent
> with the disassembly. When you begin adding on layers of supervision the
> complications increase exponentially, not linear, and in a hands-off
> approach the more details that are figured out in the beginning the less
> opportunity for error in the end. But... the further intelligence is
> stepped away from the hands-on aspect of the process the greater the
> likelihood of damage to historic fabric. You need to figure out where on
> the sliding scales you want the project to end up and what controls
> there will be to monitor quality control and stop the process in time if
> it is going in a bad direction. Me, right now, I am very much into
> wanting direct and immediate control of the situation... if the job
> allows stepping back a few notches no problem.
>
> Every railing and newel combination is going to be a different situation
> and require a different solution.
>
> In answer to your last question... no. The reluctantly verbal members of
> our community need to open their mouths and talk. If you cannot find a
> way to get them to pre-verbalize their solutions, if not even to the
> extent of getting them to wave their arms around to mimic good physical
> form in work practice... then good luck. They should at least be able to
> do this communication with you, or with assistance from a professional
> supervisor and experienced coach (hint) to work with and evaluate the
> existing work-skill resources. I don't know what typical is.
>
> Sounds to me like you have a cost-benefit-risk analysis underway.
>
> ][<
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>