It's Done!

Finally the biggest job I've taken on since the school closed the caning shop is finished. It consisted of 3 rush ladderbacks and 8 rocking chairs.

First the ladderbacks. The best thing I can say about them is that they are finished. They were ugly, so no pictures. The front of the seat was 18 inches and the back rung was 14 inches, nearly a 1/3 difference so the slope on the side rungs was horrible and the material wanted to slide to the back.

The good part of the job was the rocking chairs. There were 3 with just seats and Kimberly did all 3. One was woven into the seat (See the post "New Partner") and the other 2 were frames that had to be caned and then screwed into the chair frame. Luckily I was able to repair both frames and didn't have to make new ones from scratch as I usually do.

This rocker was different from all the others. I liked the design so I caned the seat and the back on this one.

Then there were the 4 Brumby rockers. These are made by the Brumby company from Atlanta. They epitomize the Southern Porch Rocker. Rosalyn Carter installed several on a porch in the White House during her husband's administration. The company made wagons for the Confederate Army during the War Between the States. When the war ended they had no customers for their wagons so they started making rocking chairs and they became a Southern icon.

Kim caned some of the seats and I caned all the backs. Though I say it myself the chairs look very good. After they are finished by the furniture refinisher who contracted with me to do them they will be beautiful!

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I went by the refinisher's shop to drop off some more chairs and the rockers were still there.


I love them!

One more rush seat

Another rush seat finished and shellacked!

New partner

My wife Kimberly finished her first herringbone seat. Actually she has finished another one since then. She didn't require much help, just a little help with some knots. Oh, and a rework of the first row of the weave on this one.

A long long time...

It took a very long time to finish these 3 chairs. 2 seats and 3 backs, with each at around a hundred holes. The one on the left is quite unusual. I hope I can find one like it one day. I'd love to have one!

Rainy Days and Sundays

It was raining too hard to work on the chicken coop so I got to cane this Sunday. Two fairly mundane pressed cane seats and this cute little child's rocker. It was missing the front rung so I clamped a board to the table saw and rotated a 3/4" dowel over the spinning blade to make the rough tenon, then finished it with a rasp. The diamond pattern came out quite well, I thought.

Now they are finished

It warmed up enough yesterday for me to put the side pieces back on the Hitchcock chairs. The pieces were quite badly damaged by over enthusiastic nailers, and they took quite a bit of repair. I replaced the original nails with panel nails which hold better and there is no need to put 15 nails in a side piece, which is what I found in one of them.

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