Dear Peter:
I will give it a whirl, although it has been 54 years since I caned a chair.
Aligning the chair so that the back of the chair is away from your work
position, I will call the back of the chair the North side, your work side the
South, with the right hand side being East and naturally, the left hand side is
West.
You are putting in six runs of cane and you will need to check the size of
the holes, as six pieces of cane will pass through each hole before you are
done, and in fact I should move the number up to eight, as the final trim will
involve two more pieces of cane. You will need a single piece of cane that is
wide enough to cover the holes and long enough to circle the
chair at the groove. You will also need a large container in which you can
soak the cane in before it is used. When the cane is dry, it is too stiff to
work easily, and you will not enjoy trying to work with dry cane. You will
also need pegs of cedar or other material which are used to hold your work in
place until you have finished. Some supply houses have pegs of metal, which
are designed for this purpose.
Once you have lined up the chair and you have your cane nice and soaked,
begin by making your first run from North to South and place a pegging the hole
where the end sticks down.Pull it tight and then take the long end and run it
back up through the adjacent hole and then go back North to a hole immediately
to the side of the peg. Once again pull it tight, and then repeat this process
until you have made all of the North/South runs available. Since this is a
round chair, the last runs will likely get close to the wood.
The second run is East/West, and the same process is use. The third run is
from the South/east to the North/West, and this time you make sure to cross
over the top of the second run and under the first run again pulling each
segment tight before continuing. The fourth run is again North/South and I
believe it is on top of the first three runs. The fifth run is East/west going
over the top of the fourth run but under the others. The sixth run is from the
South/west to the North/East alternating up and down as you go. At this
point, you can easily tell how you are making the honeycomb pattern, and the
sixth run is one of the easiest. Again, keep it tight and peg the ends, to
hold them in place until the last step.
The last step is to take the wide piece of cane and to force one end down
through a hole for a couple of inches, then start a small piece of can in the
adjacent hole by looping the top side over the wide cane, and then moving to
the next hole and continue that process until you have gone completely around
the outside of the chair and when you return to the starting point, you force
the end of the cane down the same hole. If necessary, you can trim the width
of the wide cane in order to get it to go in the hole. If necessary, you can
use apiece of cedar peg to hold the ends of the small cane, but break them off
on the underside, as that is where you need to use them at the end.
I did not mention it, but when working, it is necessary to temporarily
remove the pegs which hold the ends of earlier runs, but then they are put back
in place when you are passed that hole.
John Taylor taught me to do the honeycomb style of caning at the age of
twelve. He must have been a decent teacher.
I am sure that there are other techniques which will result in the same
finished product, but that is the Taylor way. I hope this helps.
Once you are done, cut the short ends of cane that is left sticking down on the
bottom and apply the desired finish to the cane, once it has dried completely.
Yours Truly,
Clifford Wilson
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