suggestions about CH31 chairs  

The cracks in the leg tops are from rotating the leg sideways. If they are mine I would want to fix this.

They are teak.

Hi Leif, could you maybe tell me more on how one could fix them? Would the leg need to be dismounted? can this job be done after the re-caning, or should it be done before?

Thank you

Ernest

Before you recane. You need to disassemble the frame. Then, and this is going to freak most people out, you need to split open the leg so that you can clean it out, and be able to get the correct amount of glue across the entire broken surface. And dry clamp it first to make sure that your clamping strategy is going to fully close the split. You may need a lot of clamps on an old splitlike this.

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That was a dear friends epithet. A smoker. She's dead. Still dead. Dead.

______________________

You may need a lot of clamps on an old splitlike this.

______________________

Just reminiscing,

Aunt Mark

I am honored that my typo has been glorified.

Well,

I was always putting down a hand towel wherever she sat. She was honest.

Aunt Mark

EDITED BY ME, AUNT MARK: Ernest, I am so sorry to have taken your thread off track. Please carry on.

Thank you, Leif. I'm not sure the guy will do the recaning is able to do what you say. What could happen if I leave them as they are ?

If you rotate in the seat, forcing a leg sideways it may snap. This is what caused the split. So more of the same may cause a break.

If you plan on using the chair yourself and you treat it gently, it will survive indefinitely with a split like that. If you have guests over and a big guy gets that chair, well you might have to act like you care only about his welfare after the chair breaks dumping him on the floor.

I see, thank you for your help. I will aks the guy whether he is able to do such a job, but I guess you need to be lucky these days to find such experienced cabinetmaker. If not, I'll recane them as they are and avoid my big friends to sit on them.

One last question: in a previous thread you suggested to leave the old cane in the backrest as this is more valuable. Would've it look nicer the cane being all the same color? I see some chairs being completely revamped and they look really nice.

Cheers

Ernest

It is your decision. If the chairs were mine, it would be my strong preference to only replace the broken strands and leave all the original strands that are still intact.

This is what another person suggested me too, but what's the risk that some old threads will break soon? Also, I see that in 2 chairs most of the old threads will need replacing, so I would end up with 2 chairs looking a bit different. The interesting thing is that the chair with the most broken seat is the one without crack in the leg.

Cheers

Ernest

It could be that someone stood on that chair to change a light bulb. Everyone does stuff without thinking sometimes. Once is all it takes.

I would just go ahead and replace all the cane. If you do just the seats, it'll take a long time for the new cane to darken to match the old cane, and I know if it was me I would look at them a thousand times over the years to come and wish that I'd just done it all at once in the beginning. Yes, it will be expensive---but again, if it was me I would forget the money pretty quickly and all I would think from then on would be "Damn, these are beautiful chairs!!"

Just my two cents, of course.

Hi spanky, this is exactly the kind of thoughts I had. I need to talk to the guy and ask how much more the recaning of the back will cost, I guess it will double the final price. Maybe I'll be able to get a good offer. I'll keep the forum posted.

Cheers

Ernest

The price for caning in the US is usually by the total area caned, so the backs should be a little less than the seat! Here, anyway. Good luck, maybe it will be less than you think.