Boot Scrapers, Part 2: Preventing Ad Hoc

In Chelsea, some fancy cast iron:

How do you get the mud, and probably horse manure, off the soles of your shoes before entering a fine rowhouse? On the second step up from the sidewalk, the bottom ornament has been omitted from the cast-iron baluster to make room for a foot and an upturned blade of sorts. You can see the paint on the “cutting” edge of the blade showing that’s not all that sharp, although, of course, it’s for scraping (putting your foot through the baluster, pressing down lightly on the blade, and pulling your foot back) not cutting.

I’m not so certain that this special baluster didn’t begin life as an ordinary baluster: there are indentations in the sides where the bottom ornament might have been before it was cut away, and the blade looks like it was maybe brazed in place. Or maybe not.

One last through about this particular handrail. Say there wasn’t a boot scraper provided…it seems to me you could use the bottom ornament on one of the typical balusters as a scraper. It’s pointed, which would make the process more difficult, but it could serve, and the fact that the balusters all have enough room for a foot to get between the sides could almost be seen as encouraging such bad behavior.

Part 1: here.

Part 0, the rustic version: here.