Adventures in cane replacement, July 4th sale on Chairish

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THE SHOW MUST GO ON: WORKING WITH SHEET CANE

I was presented with an opportunity to perform in a local theater production’s pit orchestra of The Secret Garden musical. I saw this show on Broadway in the 90s and was smitten with the dreamlike music and fantastic melodies. Even though rehearsals are about an hour away, I decided this will be fun and jumped in. The fun part about not being an actor is that we orchestra folk show up at the end. The actors have been rehearsing for months and we roll in 2 weeks before the show and it’s go time. It’s intense with 3 hour rehearsals most nights of the week until show time. Tonight we are practicing with the actors on their stage for the first time and next week is tech week where they attempt to put it all together with final run throughs before opening night on Friday! Anyway, in this show, one of the children is in a wheel chair for most of the performance. They found a real nice antique chair but, like most of them, this one had a blown out cane seat and a larger hole in the back. A friend who is in the show, asked if I could handle replacing it. After a quick glance I realized it was pressed or sheet cane and agreed to do it. I arrived to pick the chair up on a lovely sprawling farm just outside of a small town. The stage was built adjacent to a small stream and barn. What a gorgeous location to host this event! The audience will be bringing their own chairs the night of the show, refreshments and beer sold at concessions too! It has all the makings of a fun family night outdoors at the theatre! (Pronounced thee-A-tor, of course!). We loaded the ample chair into my car and away I went. Hoping to channel my inner cane goddess once again. It had been a while and I had a few other projects on hand so off to the local cane supply shop I went!

The young acTor playing the role of ‘Colin’ is about 75 lbs soaking wet but she agreed that she would be happy not having Her butt fall through thE seat!

I gathered my 2 other projects and headed out to Kempton across the county, where we are very fortunate to have a basket weaving and cane supply shop called the Country Seat. Dealing with the local shop I am able to show up with my items and have them cut my cane and spline to size (I still have work to do but I am not overbuying what I need). Plus she shares tips if there is something hard going on with the piece. So much nicer to support a small local shop than Amazon! I purchased what I needed to do the 3 jobs and home I went. I got started immediately as my main concern was getting the chair done for the show ASAP.

REMOVING THE OLD CANE

The first thing that happens is you need to get the old spline and underlying glue loose so you can remove the old seat/back. I purchased a Bissell Steam Shot for this and use it without the attachments. The older the chair is, the easier this process is. Old glue degrades and makes this job easier. My 70s/80s Cesca chair is giving me a hard time so it has been pushed to last. Apply steam to the spline until it loosens up and gently remove. I did buy a nice $18 tool that is helping with this task. It’s an awl with a bent end that just fits in the trough and you can use to pry up the old spline. Worth it!

This chair (chairmasters on tag but possibly thoneT design made famous by designer james mont) in process of Tear down.

PREPPING TO REPLACE THE CANE

After everything is removed, I made sure the channel was free of old glue and debris. The next step is to trim up your sheet (just a little as you always want to give yourself plenty of extra but tighten it up a little so that it is easier to work with). Then you soak the sheet for 15-20 min so it won’t break when you are working with it. I also keep a spray bottle handy so I can freshen that up as I am working.

It’s time to insert the cane! In this step you gently place the cane where you want it and tap the wedges to push the cane into the channel. This takes finesse taking care not to force the sheet which can break the delicate reed. You can still make adjustments and if you don’t like something, you can remove, massage out the creases and give it another go. Once you have it where you want it, you use the wedges to work the cane to the bottom of the channel. I tapped with a small hammer.

Now you are ready for the spline! That will also need to soak for about 20 min. Once it’s out, you can dry fit and trim it closer to what you need so it’s ready to place. Then when you are ready, you will drop elmer’s wood glue into the trough. It will settle to the bottom in about a minute. Then you can put the online in the channel and tap it way down in with a hammer. That will all dry up nice and tight! It’s pretty time consuming but not like hand caning which is exponentially more laborious. Here’s a look at the 2 projects I have done, the cesca chair is still in step 1! Ha.

This chair was much harder duE to the curved back. I also used radio weave cane, WhiCh is a different weave than the standard.

Wanna see the show??? It’s in Robesonia, PA. Link to info and tickets below! Show dates are JULY 7, 8, 15 and 16th! I’ll be in the pit 📯! XO Malissa