Staves and Segments

Staves and Segments

Staved or segmented construction figures in a lot of projects, from ornamental bowl turnings to porch pillars. A question we often hear is: What miter angle (or bevel) do I need? Another recurring question is: How long (or wide) should I make the pieces? Finding those answers is relatively easy. Here s how to do the math.

First, let's get our terminology straight. Staved cylinders and segmented rings may seem alike, but they're two different breeds of cats. As shown in the Staved Cylinder and Segmented Ring illustrations, the individual pieces in a segmented ring are miter-cut (shown in the Segment illustration) and joined at the ends. In a staved cylinder, the component parts are bevel-cut (shown in the Stave illustration) and joined edge-to-edge.

So, things can become confusing when we start talking about the distance between the angles. On a stave that distance is the width, but on a segment, it's the length. For this article, we'll refer always to length. Substitute "width" if you're cutting staves.

Also for simplicity, we'll call the angled cuts miters, even though we know they may be either miters or bevels. Note, too, that this article only covers straight-sided cylinders or flat rings. Tapered cylinders or rings with sloped sides call for compound cuts.