Information on Chair Caning

History

• Seat weaving dates back for thousands of years to Egypt, China and the Roman Empire. The Basket Makers Guild in London and the Willow Weavers of France brought the technique of caning chairs to the west after 1666. The style of chair was light and comfortable, more affordable than upholstered furniture and more comfortable than wooden-seated chairs. Trade with England brought the chairs to the colonies, but colonists began to make the chairs themselves. By the early 19th century, machine-made cane seats were available to place on chairs.

Basics

• Caning a chair is to weave a seat or back for a chair frame with cane fiber or rush. A chair can be recaned when the original cane wears out, or a newly built chair can be caned. Though the process may seem to need the hand of a trained artisan, in fact it can be accomplished by anyone. Carefully following a set of timeworn instructions leads you in threading cane through holes in the frame until a sturdy weave is achieved.

Materials and Tools

• The materials used for caning are simple and widely available. Not much is needed beyond the fiber cane or rush and and awl to help you thread the cane through holes and onto the next hole. A simple set of pegs help to hold cane in place and are moved along the holes as the caning proceeds. Caners can purchase the fiber from online suppliers, caning supply catalogs or in craft stores. The instructions that caners use for various projects specify the fiber thickness to be used. Caners also use razor blades or scissors to cut fiber and a shallow basin for dampening the cane.

Weaving the Cane

• The caning process is a simple one that takes some patience and should not be rushed. Caners weave the cane fiber through the holes in the frame of the chair moving vertically from a hole in the back to its corresponding hole in the front of the frame. They repeat the process caning horizontally and then diagonally in a set sequence until the desired pattern is achieved. The edges are then finished off with a trimming of a heavier weight of cane.