Woodturners Services – Wooden Turned Gable End Finials
Gable end finials are a type of wooden roof finial – an architectural feature consisting of a piece of decorative woodwork at the apex of the roof of a house. They are usually turned by woodturners from planed square wooden blanks.
The design of gable end roof finials found on older houses from the 19th and early 20th centuries often incorporates a spike above the square planed part and a ball below. However, there are an enormous number of variations such as spikes both ends and more modern designs. You could design your own.
Typically, in Victorian and Edwardian houses, they were made of pine but modern replacements are often turned in a hardwood, such as sapele or iroko.
Very large gable end finials are sometimes made up of components joined together, rather than the more usual single piece turning. so the balls and spikes are separate turnings.
Sometimes the gable ends of houses have finials which consist solely of an upper part which may have lead flashing where it goes below the roof line.
Alternatively, some gable end finials are drop finials that come down from the apex of the barge boards, such as the octagonal finial with onion shaped spike shown below.
Various shapes: