Receive Free Shipping Every Day on Orders of $35 or More. Click Here to Learn How! Receive Free Shipping Every Day. Fiber rush is easier to use and outlasts natural rush. Our fiber rush is made from the highest quality paper and is a continuous strand to make your weaving projects easier. Perfect for chair seats, footstools, barstools and more. Brown color matches many antique seats for restoration projects.Technical Details5/32" diameterThe average chair seat requires approximately 400 feet of fiber rushThe Red Chair | Related VideosThe Woodwright's Workbook: Further Exploration in Traditional Woodcraft By Roy UnderhillChair seats of woven rush have seen the south end of humanity since the days of the pharaohs. Countless different plants have been used—from corn husks to pine trees (in the form of paper-based imitation rush). The marsh-dwelling common cattail, however, makes about the best bottom a chair could have. Cattails are wild plants, growing free by the roadside, but are often adopted by someone living nearby Ask around before you harvest too near a dwelling.
Gather your cattails when the leaf tips just start to turn brown. In our part of the country this puts you in the high weeds in August, just at the time when Mr. Copperhead is feeling hot and mean. If you make a cottonmouth angry, I hear, it will follow you all day until it bites you. My cousin Walter won't go near the marsh without a stick to beat the bushes, and he always hollers, "Ho snake! Ho snake!" as he goes.It's cattail leaves, rather than flower stalks, that you want. Slice them off diagonally at the base with a sharp knife. Bundle them up and tie them loosely with one of the leaves. Set them away in a dark, cool place to dry. Give them plenty of air to prevent mildew and rot.When the rushes are dry, the tip ends will start to frizzle and the bundle will have shrunk. The now loose binding will have fallen to the floor. Dried leaves need to be dampened with water to make them soft enough to weave without breaking. Sprinkling the bundle with rainwater and wrapping it with a damp towel may be enough.
If you see that the rush is cracking, however, you may need to soak it. Overnight in a cold rain barrel or an afternoon in a warm tub will do. Try not to prepare more leaves than you can weave at one sitting; they may start to go bad if you resoak them more than once or twice. Stand them to drain awhile before you begin work.One, two, or three strands of leaves will make up the weaving cord. Fewer leaves makes for smaller diameter cord. The smaller the cord, the finer the work and the longer it takes; the more, the fatter and coarser and faster. I would rather weave with three but sit on one.Rush seat weaving proceeds as a spider spins her web. The weave moves from corner to corner in a converging rectangular spiral. To start, take the leaves and place them, butt end first, down inside the left-hand corner of the seat frame. Let the coarse heavy ends hang down below. There are four moves to make at each corner.1. Towards you over the top. 2. Away from you underneath. 3. Up through the middle and over to the left.
4. Back under and shoot to the right.After which, you rotate the chair clockwise one-quarter turn and recommence at the next corner. As you spin the chair around, wrapping the four comers of the frame, four squares of rush will grow like rope crystals to fill the space.Roll the leaves smoothly together between the length of your fingers as you go, maintaining the same direction of twist as you weave. Always make the twist toward the center of the rail that the cord Is passing over. This sounds simple, but calls for mental gymnastics as the cord passes in alternate directions. If you twist toward yourself when you lay from left to right, you will need to twist away from you when going right to left.Cattail leaves run about 5 feet long at best. This means that you must continually add new leaves to keep the cord going. Make your additions when the cord reaches the mid-point between two corners. To add a new leaf, stick about 6 inches of its heavy end down between the stoutest strands of the cord.
Give the cord a twist or two to lock the newcomer In place and then lay it down to join in the twist with the others. You can also tie in new leaves as you go.Turn in a new leaf before the old one runs out. As the corners of the frame fill up, pound the cords with a beating stick to ensure that the weave is tight. The fat ends of the added leaves that have been growing like a beard beneath the seat can be shaved off to provide the stuffing to fill and cushion the seat. Slice them off with your knife and force them evenly into the triangular pockets with the end of the beating stick. Fine wood shavings from the plane will do as well for stuffing if your leaf butts are too coarse.When you are working with a trapezoidal chair seat with the front rail longer than the back rail, you will need to add courses to the front corners until they are even with the back. Start as you would for a regular chair, making six complete passes around the chair, stopping just before you pass over the right side of the back rail on the last go-round.
We are open Mon-Friday 10-5, and Sat 11-4. Feel free to let us know you’re on the way, or call for an appointment.2. Email pictures of your chair to for general estimates.3. Phone calls are the least efficient and least accurate way to get an estimate. We have high call volume and often have to stop tedious work to pick up the phone. We will tell you to email or bring in your chair for the best estimate.4. See drop-down tabs below to figure out your own estimate.Occasionally your chair may require additional work which we won’t notice until we remove the old seat. We offer classes and sell caning books for industrious folks on a budget or with multiple chairs needing repair. It is very gratifying to restore your family heirloom.See our e for information on additional fees that you may incur. How do I know if my chair is natural or fiber rush? Turn the chair over. Is the rush cord of uniform size and the same on the top and bottom? Often rush breaks are clean cut and do not shed grassy fibers.
Cats often like to sharpen their claws on this type of chair! $150-$180 for seat repairs. See below for natural rush indicators. Generally $200 for a 17 inch chair. Windsor chairs have to be disassembled and reassembled to restore seat. Chairs with wooden skirts that have to be removed and reattached are also more costly repairs. They are closer to $300-$400 if they have arms. How to tell if your chair is natural rush: Does your chair shed dry grassy flakes? If you flip the chair over and compare the back of the weave to the front of the weave, and they are different, then you have a natural rush chair. The front of the weave is tight like a cord and the bottom is flatter and wider, often poofing out. This type of weave is labor intensive and the materials more costly than fiber rush. 1/2-inch wide or larger reed: A basic repair of 17 inches across the front rail is about $150. Less than 1/2 inch wide reed: half the size=twice the time….$250. Big porch rockers: It takes about 30-40 hours to weave a porch rocker you paid $50 for back in the 70s.
$300-$350 for a large rocker seat. About the same for the back. Kennedy Rocker Replacement: seats and backs are available. The seat is easy, the back requires sawing, cleaning out joints, knocking the whole chair apart. $400 if we do both. Priced according to job..approx $250 for small regular seat. This includes sanding and tung oil finish. The less expensive option is splint weave. Splint will be uniform in width and depth and a lighter color than bark. Note: Authentic bark is beautiful and strong and more expensive. Reed is a perfectly acceptable material for those on a budget. But we LOVE authentic bark and it comes from a 5th generation chair maker in Tennessee instead of China. The wooden spline is the key…Imagine your chair seat or back as a picture frame with the cane as the picture. Look at the edge of the cane. If your chair has a groove with a long slender piece of wood it is machine woven cane. An average seat can range from $80-$150. A panel on the back of the chair is generally $150.
Unusual weaves/patterns/shapes will require on-site pricing. Medallion panels cost about $225-$250. These chairs take 15-40 hours to weave. We understand it is a lot of money, please understand we can’t give discounts for multiple chairs. Basic Repair with 74 holes about $250-$300 Round Seats with less than 100 holes or chairs with very small cane, about $350-$380 How to tell if it is hand woven or machine cane: 1. Look underneath the seat or on the back of the back. If you can see loops of cane where cane has been woven through holes drilled into the wooden frame, then you have a laced cane chair. Now look at the top of the seat/front of the back (read #2). 2. Look where the cane meets the seat on top. If it is a laced cane chair, there will be a wider piece of cane that has been sewn onto the seat frame with loops of cane. Important Note for Special Hand Woven Chairs: Curved backs like Lincoln Rockers are a more involved repair and may cost $400-$500.
Often structural work is needed prior to weaving. Blind Cane & French Chairs….You got a good deal on it because it needs an expensive repair. Sometimes these chairs will surprise you by ending up being an extremely complicated project that takes 6 months or more. More involved repair with medallions, shared seams or double paneled arms: time & materials See bottom of page for definition of “More Involved Repairs.” Basic Danish Cord chairs have squared seats with nails lining the perimeter of the inside underneath. Folding chairs, split rail chairs, and chairs with slots are not basic. Due to the wide range of chair styles the range for repairs can vary from $250-$350. Generally you can expect $250-$275 for an average seat. Additional fee of $25 if you need new nails, most often we can re-use the nails. More involved Mid-Century Modern Chairs (you know who you are!) will require on site estimates and are charged time & materials. Danish Cord in Rush style like Wegner’s Wishbone or J-16 Rocker is in the $350 range.