NEW TIP!
I am using one of these plastic things as a shuttle when wrapping rails and I LOVE it. It was $2.98 at Lowe's and came with a free length of polypropelene rope! (haha)
You can load it up with 20-25 yards of cord without it getting too bulging if you wrap really neatly. (Yeah it takes a little longer but it's worth the effort.) It fits easily between the warp strands as you wrap.
The graduated notches at the corners are great for locking the cord in so that it doesn't all come unwound if you drop it. You can toss it around and around the rail without making a huge mess. It's really pretty ideal.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_349236-258-071514999661_0__?productId=3587900&Nt...|0&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_price|0%26Ntt%3Drope%26page%3D1&facetInfo=
hah! Make sure you point out...
hah! Make sure you point out that it is one continuous length of cord that wraps the entire seat. And mention the names, Wegner, Eames, Vodder, Moller, Juhl, and Nelson in the heading. If you follow these two linguistic enhancements, I think that $47,000 would be far too low a starting point.
Can you look at new thread for me?
I'm not sure if you guys get notices of new posts on this thread but - I started a new thread with questions and, since the folks on this one are the people I'm hoping to hear from, I thought I'd post here. The new thread is: "Danish Cord, No Nails...." Would love to hear what you guys think. I'm really scratching my head.
UPDATE! Frank's Cane & Rush Supply has switched to a different paper cord that is a little darker and grayer in tone than what they have sold for a long time. It's lighter weight cord. I untwisted the three plies and unfurled one of them and compared the width of that strip to the same in their old cord (which they've discontinued).
The new stuff is 20mm wide vs. 29mm for the old stock. Their old stock was already smaller in diameter than Danish-made cord. The new stock is less than half the amount of paper in Danish-made cord.
They don't say anything about the difference between their old and new cord on the website, so be advised.
Another update!
I talked to Mike Frank at Frank's Cane & Rush the other day. He is aware of the inferiority of the paper cord they are currently selling and is taking steps to get the better quality stuff back. He said that three of the suppliers who used to sell it have gone out of business. I think he said they were Danish companies. But I'm wondering if the stuff sold in the US as "authentic Danish paper cord" is indeed made in Denmark at all. I know firsthand how expensive stuff there is, and how high shipping rates are. I suspect that the paper cord they use is made in China. It doesn't seem possible that they could be making it and exporting it to small businesses here who then charge only 3x what Frank's does..which does seem like a lot more but knowing all that other stuff I don't think it is.
Anyway...just more information to throw out there.
I used Frank's papercord for the first six chairs I wove several years ago. As you said, it has always been thinner diameter than the vintage stuff you see on Moller chairs, and the papercord I have bought from any other supplier has always been pretty much the same thicker diameter as the vintage Danish papercord. Frank's is the only place I have got cord from where it was noticeably thinner. The thicker cord does cost quite a bit more though. I think you can pay $30-$35 a chair doing a seat with papercord from places besides Frank's, who I believe was around $10 a chair seat, or less. But, I stopped using Frank's after the first set of chairs I did, since I preferred the thicker stuff.
If it has gotten even thinner, yeah, that would be a big problem.
I am writting to thank all the posters of this thread about how to cord danish chairs, and to encourage anyone who believes it is to hard or difficult and do not try to replace the cord a chair. I can assure it is not, it takes time and patience, but thats all.
I have just finished my first chair, an oak moller 71. The result has been quite good (the next time I will do more wraps more thightly to avoid visible spaces between them, this has happened because the original cord I have replaced was thicker than the one I have used, and hence, I should have increased the number of loops from the original seat)
For any one trying to do it, there is enough information in the following internet links I would recommend:
- Reading this forum thread (part 1 and 2)
- Watching this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z39dMrDBu8s
- Looking at this web : http://www.thomaspenrose.com/diy_cord01.htm
Good luck and enjoy it!
Raul
Raul,
Very nice job! Would it be cheating to stain the rails black when using black cord? I don't think it's ever possible to avoid slight gaps in the wraps and the light rails showing through are way more noticeable with black cord. Not that it looks bad---at least not in your photos!
That video you linked to is very good but he does a couple of things that provoked me to shake my head at the screen--mostly not using a shuttle when wrapping the rails. It saves SO much time over drawing entire cord through on every wrap. Well, actually, it's just half the length, i guess---but it's still easier. I don't start the wrapping from the center of the cord anymore---just load up the shuttle and go from one end to the other.
I also learned to position the front-to-back paired strands over their nails (close one eye and look down at the nail from exactly above it), then do however many wraps are needed in between to keep the strands above their nails. Once in ahile a nail will be placed slightly off and you will need to do one strand more or less, but otherwise it's pretty foolproof.
Also on the wraps--he taps the nails in after the front-to-back strands are in place (except for the center nail in each rail). I saw some old Moller chairs once with original seats where the guy had left a long tail after wrapping, then tucked it under each nail, THEN tapped the nails down. It makes a neater finish than just having a short tail that is tacked down or woven under and over a few nails. I think that it also helps keep the crossed-over strands in place. Not that they're in much danger of slipping over one way or the other, but still. I do all my chairs this way now.
So...Country Seat in PA no longer sells bulk boxes of Danish L nails. I just called and was told that they only get them in boxes of 100 now, so the best they can do is $11.70 per 100 if you buy six or more boxes. I don't know how this compares to the bulk price since I never got around to getting the bulk amount. OH well...
So I looked around online and found this place in CA that sells 50 nails for $3.95, which comes out to less than the price above.
http://www.caning.com/html/product/TNAILS.html
Sounds good to me.
In other news, Perkins is now selling black cord! Did we know this already? As of right now, it's $45 per 2 lb coil (enough for one chair).
http://hhperkins.com/product_info.php/products_id/1622?osCsid=b95f5adb85...
Obtained these two ringstols this weekend. Plan on cleaning up the frames and then re-weaving. These are done in paper cord with no nails. Anyone ever done one of these before? Any tips. I'll keep one together as a reference before reweaving but am wondering if anyone has advise. Thanks!
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