Is your bentwood chair in need of cane seat replacement?
Does the bent wood frame need furniture repair?
This furniture repair project is for a bentwood side chair. It required most of the common bentwood chair repairs. One of which was a cane seat replacement.
Before we can get to the chair caning repair step, we need to start at the beginning. Bentwood chair restoration begins with wood repair and tightening of the frame. There were no breaks or splits on this chair, but it was very loose and wobbly.
For this particular style, glue is only required for the front legs.
All other connecting joints were originally assembled with screws. The bent wood design is impressive, lightweight and strong. It requires no mortise and tenon or dowel joinery.
After the front legs were re-glued, all the hardware was tightened. The frame was then cleaned and polished to revive the original finish.
The cane seat on this bentwood chair was previously converted.
Originally a hand cane seat, it is now a pre-woven cane seat. This was easy to spot. The original holes used for the hand caning are still visible from the underside of the seat. Pre-woven cane can be identified by the spline around the edge of the seat.
Typically people decide to change from hand cane to pre-woven cane for one reason – $$. Some owners do it themselves to learn how to do chair caning (pre-woven is easier).
Conversions like this are often seen and still practiced by many. We however, do not perform this task.
Replacing a pre-woven cane seat begins with the most difficult step.
Removing the spline and cleaning out the groove. After that, chair caning is all fun.
A pre-woven cane sheet was cut to fit, positioned and installed with new spline.
Staining new cane seats is also important for antique chairs. It produces an aged look and helps match sets of chairs as was the case for this one.
Furniture repair for bentwood chairs and cane seat replacement for Hillsdale NY client – thank you.
Contact us for chair caning services and bentwood chair repair,
or use our resource page to find a chair caning specialist in your area.
Hello, I have a bentwood rocking chair to re-cane the back and seat. The groove is covered on the back. I can not determine whether it is wood. It has a stain over it to match the wood frame. Also, do you have any suggestions how to remove and replace this groove covering? I have done pressed-in cane webbing seats. Would the groove covering be a spline material? Thanks in advance for your advice. All the best, Steve Ambrose
Originally your chair back was woven through the frame and when completed the groove on the backside was shimmed with a strip of wood. If the seat is also hand cane, look underside and you may see a groove or channel exposed. If there is, you’ll understand why the back was covered.
5% of the time it is possible to get the shim out as a hole by prying it with a chisel. May help to run a razor along the seams first. The other 95% they break and splinter and are replaced with a new wood shim, then touched up and polished to match. Spline material is possible to us as shim, but the rounded top edges of spline will not show a tight seam – you will need to use filler to cover that. If possible, wood may work better. Either way you’ll need to do some planing or sanding to flush the surfaces smooth.
I’ve also seen grooves that have been filled with a putty like filler. Something you may not find out until you get into it. Remove same as wood.
All said, there is a quite a bit of work involved, which gives good reason to appreciate the craftsmanship of antique furniture.
Hope that helps you out.