Grace Woodwork
How Chair Caning Is Repaired
Not all woven seats are the same, and the repair depends entirely on which kind your chair has. A quick look at the seat frame tells you, and tells a shop how the job will be done and priced.
First, identify the seat
Turn the chair over or look closely at the edge of the seat opening. What you see there decides how the seat is repaired.
| Seat type | How to spot it | How it is repaired |
|---|---|---|
| Hand caning | Row of small drilled holes around the opening; loops and knots underneath | Old cane cut out, seat rewoven strand by strand through the holes |
| Pressed (sheet) cane | Groove around the opening with a reed spline in it; clean underside | Spline and sheet removed, groove cleaned, new sheet wedged in and new spline glued |
| Rush | Twisted strands wrapped around the four seat rails | Whole seat rewoven in natural rush or fiber rush |
| Danish cord | Paper cord wrapped around the rails and hooked on small L-shaped nails | Rewoven with new cord |
| Splint | Flat strips of wood or reed woven over and under | Rewoven with soaked splint |
Hand caning: the seven-step weave
Hand caning, sometimes called hole-to-hole caning, is the original method. Chicago Magazine notes that pre-woven pressed cane only arrived as a machine-made alternative in the 1870s.
The most common pattern is the octagonal seven-step weave described by Van Dyke's. Strands are soaked so they bend without cracking, then laid in order:
- Steps 1 to 4Strands front to back, side to side, front to back again, then side to side again, building a square grid.
- Steps 5 and 6Diagonals woven through the grid, one direction and then the other.
- Step 7A wider binder cane laid over the holes around the edge to finish it.
Cane comes in widths matched to the spacing of the holes. Suppliers do not agree on what to call each size, so a shop measures the hole spacing rather than relying on names like "fine" or "medium."
It is slow work, which is why hand caning is usually priced by the number of holes around the seat rather than by the chair.
Repairing the frame comes first. If the seat rails are cracked or the chair is loose, weaving a new seat into it only puts new cane on a failing chair.
Pressed cane: sheet and spline
Pressed cane is woven on a loom into a sheet. It is held in a groove routed around the seat opening by a tapered strip of reed called a spline.
To replace it, the old spline is cut and lifted out and the groove is cleaned of old glue. The new sheet is soaked, laid over the opening and pressed into the groove with wedges, then glue goes in and the new spline is tapped home. Once dry, the extra cane is trimmed.
The spline has to fit the groove. Lee Valley's sizing advice is a spline about 1/32 inch narrower than the groove, measured at several points around the seat.
Rush, Danish cord and splint
Rush seats are woven from twisted strands wrapped around the seat rails from the corners toward the middle. Natural rush is made from cattail leaves, as Cornell's guide to rush seats describes; fiber rush, according to Popular Woodworking, is twisted kraft paper and is cheaper and easier to find. A worn rush seat is rewoven in full.
Danish cord is a tightly rolled paper cord used on many mid-century chairs and stools. Fine Woodworking explains that it is hooked onto small L-shaped nails along the inside of the rails rather than simply wrapped.
Splint seats are woven from flat strips of wood or reed, soaked to make them flexible. Chairs with round rails can take rush or splint, and the old seat is usually the best guide to what belongs on the chair.
Grace Woodwork repairs chairs and recanes seats in our Kilgore shop; for rush, cord or splint seats, send a photo and we will tell you whether it is a job we can take on. See chair caning and chair repair to get yours looked at.
Common questions
What is chair caning?
Chair caning is weaving a seat or back from cane, the thin glossy strips cut from the outer layer of rattan, a climbing palm from Southeast Asia. It is done either by hand through holes drilled in the frame, or with a pre-woven sheet pressed into a groove.
How do I know which kind of caning my chair has?
Look at the seat frame. A row of small holes around the opening means the seat was hand caned. A groove around the opening with a strip of reed pressed into it means it is pressed, or sheet, cane. Twisted strands wrapped around the rails mean rush or Danish cord.
How much does it cost to recane a chair?
Published prices are thin and vary by region. HomeAdvisor has listed about $2 per hole for hand caning plus materials, and a 2008 Chicago Magazine article gave about $3.50 per hole for hand caning and $150 and up for a pressed cane seat. We quote your chair after seeing it.
Can you replace just part of a cane seat?
Usually not. A hand-caned seat is woven as one piece, and a pressed seat is one sheet, so a hole means replacing the whole seat. A loose binding strip or a popped spline can sometimes be refastened.
Is it hard to recane a chair yourself?
Pressed cane is the easier job, though it needs the right size spline and careful wedging. Hand caning a seat in the seven-step pattern is slow, patient work. Either way, any loose joints in the chair should be repaired first, which is woodwork rather than weaving.
Send a photo and we will tell you what it needs.
A phone picture is plenty. You will hear what the piece needs, what it will cost and roughly how long it will take before anything starts.
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