Hi Dave,
I used (if I remember) a .81mm brass wire and just bent it to shape. I just glued it in place after that. BTW - thank you for the encouragement and likes - I most often go to your BL to see how you did things, (but not to copy). I am going to use a little thinner stanction post on my railings. Its all part of making the project more personal I guess. I had thought about 'turning' my stanctions with a more decorative look, but I just don't feel like investing much more time into it.
I also found out the hard way that softer wood swells when painted with India ink - and I guess more any other type of water-based product. I guess this project for me has been more of 'to see if I can do it' - I am not sure how much I accomplished it as there are a ton of mistakes and problems.
I think some of it is still working full time and then not putting all my best effort into it. I could have probably taken my time with it more, but only have limited time to work on it, I wanted this project to have a time limit to it. With that mindset, it is easy to rush things and not do a good job. I made a lot of shortcuts on some things, but somethings like the Chain Pump Handles, I got carried away making them functional.