Danish Cord Weaving Tips & Tricks

This informal video was taken during a private tutorial at Silver River Center for Chair Caning. Dave demonstrates his tips and tricks for getting your Danish Cord chair warped. This is not a full instructional video but will help experienced seat weavers with a time saving technique.
Silver River Center for Chair Caning is the nation's only Chair Caning School & Museum located in Asheville's River Arts District. They have been a flagship for chair caning in Appalachia and in the US for a decade. Brandy & Dave teach chair nerds from all over the US and Canada and usually welcome visitors from all over the world into their 2500 sq ft industrial chic museum. Due to the pandemic, they are open by appointment for classes and restorations for the rest of 2020. Keep an eye out for online courses coming in 2021. Go to www.SilverRiverChairs.com for more information.
Visit the chair nerds on Instagram @SilverRiverChairs or on Facebook @SilverRiverCenterforChairCaning

[@dianemergui]

Thanks for this video, it's been super helpful! Please settle an ongoing conversation with my partner, where is your accent from?! We've been debating it for as long as we've been weaving (so far too long)

[@noe6911]

Muy buen trabajo. Saludos desde mexico.

[@natalietorres5798]

Any recommendations for removing paint stains from paper cord chairs?

[@julsjewel2933]

Great tip on the looseness of the first horizontal line. I finished my second chair recently and that first line is too tight. This creates a small gap between first and second line.

[@silverriverchairs3686]

you definitely get better the more you do it!

[@kresoPMF]

Hi! Great video, it really helped me better understand the whole process to which I am preparing. What type of cord would you recommend? Laced or unlaced? I am buying on European market, and laced is 3 mm in diameter, while unlaced is 3,5 mm. Would that 0,5 mm make any difference? To me, laced looks nicer.

[@silverriverchairs3686]

The unlaced is a little softer and easier on your hands. The laced is more textured, so aesthetically it's a little more interesting. Such a small difference in size shouldn't matter...make your choice based on whichever one you think looks better.

[@chenchen7593]

Can you do a paper rush pattern with Danish Cord?

[@jljaylee]

for the side weaves, do you think it is important for the last row at the rear to also be an over weave (i.e. similar to your first row in the video)? i am finding that i can barely squeeze one last row such that it ends with an over weave but it is causing some rows to bunch up such that they are almost overlapping and am wondering whether i should just end with an under weave instead

[@silverriverchairs3686]

I'd end with it an under instead of overlapping on the sides.

[@jljaylee]

@@silverriverchairs3686 thanks! i'm thinking of doing that - its just that all the videos / photos that i have seen + the original weave on my chairs all had it ending with an over weave on the rear

[@silverriverchairs3686]

@@jljaylee Ideally, yes, but I don't think the chair police would arrest you for that offense.

[@rogerlewis1181]

What type of wood is that darker wood? I have one simiiar and can't identify it

[@silverriverchairs3686]

Hey Roger, Usually the wood is teak, but also oak and rosewood.

[@chloedevera6418]

Hi great video! What kind of cord did you use for this?

[@silverriverchairs3686]

Thank you for the kind words! We used Danish Cord. It's a three-ply paper cord treated with wax during manufacturing. The process itself can be used with many different kinds of cord...as long as they're not stretchy.

[@therecordguy8244]

How long is the original coil? I assume it doesn’t matter if it’s too long but there must be a minimum amount required to wrap the front rail plus the warp spokes....?

[@silverriverchairs3686]

Hi,
Our method is a little different than what you find in a book, doing the warps and wraps at the same time. It's about 1 lb, or enough to fit in your hand comfortably. (think the ok sign or a meditation mudra!) You should have enough to do both warp and wraps AND begin weaving with that one coil. Makes for a neater underside.
If you do the warps and wraps separately, The Caner's Handbook says 35-40 ft for the front wraps and 30-35 for the back rail, but we penciled in 16 yds front and 13 yards back rail (probably because we ran out a time or two). It is a bummer if you run out at the end and have to splice, not impossible, but a little less neat. If you choose to measure it out and do warps and each rail wrap separately, once you have the material measured, try to keep the material in the general shape it "wants" to be in. Don't twist it up and around your hand and elbow like an extension cord or put it on a spool. You'll end up doing a lot of untwisting.
When you're doing the weaving, you don't need to cut any amount off of the spool, you can just pull off of it as you go, that is the brilliance of the design of the chairs with the L-nails.

[@silverriverchairs3686]

Hi there, we usually get an 11 lb coil (sets of chairs) but a 2 lb coil can work too. There is a minimum amount to wrap but with this method you can just pull it off of the coil and start weaving. Some methods tell you to cut a specific amount and then it sucks if you run out and have to splice on. Does that make sense?

[@highanddryful]

A fantastic tutorial. If my chair has a trapezoid shape rather than square , is there a variation to the danish weave? I know how to measure the reaer and front to get the difference for my weaves when doing the triangular weave rather than the danish weave ...

[@silverriverchairs3686]

You adjust for trapezoidal by adding more wraps in between the pairs on the front rail vs the back. Moller chairs are not quite square/rectangular, so there are more wraps on the front than the back. That's pretty standard...you just have to figure out the right ratio.

[@highanddryful]

@@silverriverchairs3686 Thank you . So in other words if the front rail is longer, I wrap the front rail with extra c wraps until the spoke is straight and 90 degrees to the rear rail.

[@danielmatheson2924]

Hey there, great video! Are you able to tell us what the approximate distance is between the nails on either side?

[@silverriverchairs3686]

The Danish nails on the sides of the chair are spaced approximately 1/2" apart.

[@danielmatheson2924]

@@silverriverchairs3686 Thanks heaps! That's great.

[@christinebell6749]

How do you know how to place nails

[@silverriverchairs3686]

When doing restorations, the nails are primarily in place. General rule of thumb: 1/2" apart and slightly zig-zag in order to prevent splitting the rail along the wood grain.

[@highanddryful]

@@silverriverchairs3686 thanks for explaining this. Also I find your way of setting the spokes and wrapping the rails as you go far less time consuming than if I were to first set the spokes and then begin with the wrapping.

[@silverriverchairs3686]

@@highanddryful We find that it is less time consuming as well. The method was learned when taking apart/analyzing Hans Wegner designs.