drilling with a spade blade

[davester]

nwyaker wrote:
If these are being used as a guard or safety rail, no way are they strong enough or up to code requirements.

I agree. I sure hope those are only supposed to be cosmetic, because they are less safe than nothing at all since somebody might be tempted to lean on them thinking they were safe. As I recall code requires that a stair safety rail is required to resist a 300 lb lateral force. Those things would be hard pressed to resist 30 lb.