Click for Hand Cane And Press Caning Gallery Page

  Rush seats; have nothing to do with how fast a seat is done!  As a matter of fact, they are one of the slowest, difficult, and most time consuming seats to re-weave.  A rush seat has a cord -string or rope like material wrapped around four dowels framing the square of a seat, in a pattern I describe as creating four triangles whose points come together in the center.  They require a lot of pulling, tugging, and adjusting to complete a beautiful rush seat.  The Hands get a real workout doing these.

    Originally, Rush got its name from the “Bull Rush Cattail leaves,” growing around marshy riverbeds or duck ponds.  During the fall, leaves are harvested and stored to dry in barns. They require being turned over, every once in a while to keep them from molding & to facilitate their even drying.  To weave a rush seat, the now dried leaves are soaked in hot water 4-6 hours, & run through an old clothes ringer forcing the air from the cells of the leaves.  Next a leaf would be attached to the side of the chair,  and 2-3 more leaves are continually added & twisted together throughout the entire seat weaving process, in an over under around and through pattern until the 4 triangles are formed the entire seat area is filled in.  As you might imagine, this is an extremely long process!

    Fortunately, before the turn of the 1900’s, a man made product was created which looks very similar to natural rush!  It is made out of heavy brown craft paper, similar to the color brown paper bags.  It comes in long “pre-twisted” coils from 2 to 50 lbs, and is far less labor-intensive to re-rush a seat with.  I feel it is actually more durable than the natural rush, as it does not dry out & become brittle like real rush does.

    Rush seats like these may last 30-60 years, of course there are always people who can wear one out in 10 years.  In the olden days in between the top and bottom layers of rush, old newspapers were often stuffed in the hollow areas creating a firmer or “padded” seat.  When I find these, I can hardly wait to carefully extricate these old papers and find dates to give me a good idea of when the chair was rushed!  I’ve found some from the late 1800’s and many through the early 1900's.  Sometimes even old comics were used, they are a real treat to find!  Today we use corrugated cardboard box material, which seems to hold its shape better & gives a more solid durable seat to last for many years!

      Little care is needed for one of these seats.  Initially I tell customers to spray several coats of Scotch Guard Spray on them to help keep the rush from absorbing satins.  A simple vacuuming once in a while is about all that is ever necessary.  Some people want to stain or color these seats, but I caution against this practice, as it always seems to wear off, leaving a cracked & splotchy look to the seat.  I prefer to leave them natural, and allow them to age & color on their own.

       Currently Re-cording most Rush Seats costs somewhere between $135.00-$285.00.  Some chairs like Windsor Chairs must be taken apart to be re-rushed, which adds some extra costs for taking the chair apart & putting it back together...  It can take a long day to do a rush chair!  There is a lot of pulling, twisting, packing the cords, cutting & fitting the cardboard to fit into the two layers of rush.  My hands get a real workout doing one of these!

Click for Rush Seats Gallery Page

Danish Cord During the 1940’s famous furniture designer Hans Wegner "(pronounced)" Wagner came up with many beautiful designs in furniture pioneering the “Danish Modern Era.”  Much of his incredible work was made from exotic Teak, and Rosewood.  These very Classic Danish or Scandinavian chairs often had seats woven out of a 3 ply twisted paper cord material about 4/32” commonly called “Danish Cord.” Another popular maker of these famous Danish Scandinavian chairs was Moller or Mollar.

  These cords were strung in pairs from front to back, while another pair was woven side to side over and under the cords which went from front to back.  These seats were very durable and long lasting.  Many times these chairs I get are being done for the first time after 30 to 40 years!

   As time passed, several varieties of these chairs evolved, as well as some cheap imitation knockoffs.

  Two distinct ways of attaching these cords were done on the original chairs.  The Primary difference is way the cords are attached to the sides.  They are either done having the cord wrapped in pairs around a second lower bar on side, in an almost figure-eight pattern, or the cord is looped over the side seat bar around these odd looking “L” shaped nails along the inside rail underneath.  In later "knockoff methods" (cheaper and faster versions), the cords were stapled onto the chairs!  These chairs are not fun to remove the staples from.

  Of all the seats I re-weave, Danish Re-Cording creates one of the most beautiful Seats.  A new Danish Cord Seat makes the chairs look almost like they did when they were new!

   Little care is needed for these seats.  Initially I tell customers to spray several coats of Scotch Guard Spray on them to help keep the cord from absorbing satins.  A simple vacuuming once in a while is about all that is ever necessary.  Some people want to stain or color these seats, but I always caution against this practice, as it always seems to wear and crack away over time leaving a splotchy look to the seat.  I prefer to leave them to age & color on their own

   Currently Re-cording most Danish Dining Chairs costs somewhere between $120.00-$225.00.  It can take most of a day to do one of these.  There is a lot of pulling, tugging, and packing the cords & the hands get a real workout doing these!

  Please go to our Danish Cord Weaves Page to see more pictures of Danish Corded Chairs, like the Folding Chair & Stool we recently did for a lady in Virginia. Also see other types of Danish Chairs we do. Danish Chairs done with 1/4"-3/8" Rattan Strips Called "Rattan Peel," as it is the bark peeled off Rattan.

Cushion Pillow Support for Danish Chairs

Type # 1~ (Sorry, No longer Available)

   Some Danish Chairs have a coil spring coated with a Rubber ~ Vinyl ~ Plastic coating over this 1/8" spring / cable that appears to be continuous loop, but actually has a little tiny screw about 3/4" long that has threads going in opposite directions on each side. This special screw holds the two ends  of the spring together and is then placed in special radial track groove at the sides of the chair to hold up the cushions up.

   Truthfully, its hard to believe it works but it does! If some of your springs are broken we can replace them for you, providing you still have the tiny little screw. If it is lost you may be out of luck! Sometimes we have been able to acquire a few but that is only a "MAYBE!" Sorry, neither the springs or the screws are available any longer.

   Some Danish Chairs have a special type of 2" tan / light brown Pirelli rubber webbing which is stretched across the seat and stapled or tacked to the sides and front of the chair to hold up a cushion. For extra support the rubber straps are woven over under over under each other.

  On some "Fancier" models there is a type of two part metal clip that attaches to each end of the strap, then a special mating clip is attached to the chair.

   If the rubber on your chairs is broken or has lost its ability to hold a cushion up, we can replace these for you.

   On some "Fancier" models there is a type of two part metal clip that attaches to each end of the strap, then a special mating clip is attached to the chair.

On Other chairs, there is a little 1/8" groove going around the frame. The end of the rubber has a flat metal piece attached to it which then locks down into the groove on both sides at an angle.

Remember...

"Sitting Thru It? I'll Re- Do It!"...