Long Wekend

This weekend I decided that Carpel Tunnel Syndrome wasn't going to stop me from caning. I had 4 days to work as we had MLK Day on Monday and I had taken Friday to wait for repairmen to come work on our heat and our gas fireplace.

Kimberly's hairdresser had given her a couple of chairs for me to do, so it was time to get back to it. The first chair I did was a rush seat, which was what brought on my CTS in the first place. I set up in our bedroom with a space heater as the garage was way too cold to work in that morning.

It turned out pretty well. 

The next chair I worked on was a rocking chair a co-worker had asked me to put a flat reed seat in. It came out to 41 strands in the warp. Odd numbers I like as that means I can do a very effective diamond by dividing the seat into quadrants. This also meant I could do a pattern of 4 which came out very nicely.

Saturday was much warmer. I was able to set up in the den. Our gas fireplace was working by then so it was nice and warm. I soon knocked out a small pressed cane seat.

 Then there was a chair with a pressed cane seat and back. The back was OK, but the seat had to be replaced. I'm not good at matching new cane to old, so I'm waiting for the owner to decide the next step.

I had run out of work in my garage, so I had to run to my storage to pick up some more. I got 6 pressed cane seats and two open weave, plus a porch rocker in rush. That should keep me busy for a while. 

When I got them back home I cut out one of the open work ones and started on it. It was a square seat with 56 holes in medium 3.0 mm cane. 

I didn't manage to finish it Saturday night, but early Sunday it was done and I started on the other. It was a round seat in fine 2.5 mm cane with 76 holes. It was not well drilled and I should have used one grade finer cane on it as the strands ended up being slightly too close together. Added to that the fact that the cane wasn't the highest quality and it tended to break while being woven... 

I worked on it Sunday until I got frustrated with it. Then I cut out the 6 pressed cane seats (they came out fairly easily) before the Conference football games started. Then it was time to watch some football! What a shame my Atlanta Falcons weren't in it this year.

I worked on that darn seat most of  MLK day and finished it after work on Tuesday night. 

Way too long! Hopefully the pressed cane will cooperate.

A Productive Weekend

I managed to rush both ladderbacks above and weave splints on the little stool on Saturday. I was also able to pull the cane and spline on one side of the back of a high backed dining room chair. Sunday morning was warm enough for me to put in cane and spline in the dining room chair. Now I have to match the stain of the remaining cane. I forgot to take pics of the high back. The owner has is. I must have put 5 coats of Antique Walnut Polyshade on it but it still wouldn't darken up to match. Grrr! At least the customer liked it.

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.