Finishing new stairs

[dick]

Just had new stairs installed, oak treads, rails and balusters. Where the balusters bear on the treads there are some small gaps from fit-up. The stair railing is open to the side so it is highly visible. Do I need to fill these gaps with wood putty or am I being too nitpicking? Max. gap is probably less than 1/32 of an inch.

[David]

These new stairs are probably sealed and finished, too, right? Putty may look a little better, but at 1/32", it is kind of nitpicky for me.

[Roy J.]

I've seen a fair amount of staingrade houses where they left the cracks alone rather than fill them--and they have a certain character to them. Either way, somebody who knows what they are looking at can tell there was a crack. Put away your microscope?

[Don_P]

Generally it looks worse the more you mess with it, the putty starts a round of scraping and sanding, that distorts the sharp edges and leaves some scratches... strive for perfection but sometimes come up a little short, dang it. I'd live with it if possible.