I recently had the opportunity to
install mahogany flooring on the
treads and landing of a large-diameter
radiused staircase. One approach
to the situation would have been to
divide the radius into segments, bandsaw
the curve out of straight boards, and join
the segments end for end. The problem
with this approach is that there would be
a lot of wide, very visible joint lines
where the wood grain changed.
A more natural-looking technique,
and the one I chose, is for a single piece
of wood to follow the curve, which in
this case could only be accomplished by
bending. Bending wood is not difficult,
but it is time-consuming and does
require attention to detail. In short,