Well Loved Victorian Style Rocker

This beauty came to me at the end of last week. She’s a head-scratcher; I wonder how I’m going to replace those broken curlicues? and reweave the cane into the broken arms? A fun challenge.

Work began with the removal of the seat. If you’ve looked at my previous post, you’ll have seen some of the tools John made for my last caning job, well, this one has required more of his ingenuity; this was one heck of a hard weaving to remove. Once that was done I began rebuilding the wicker armrests, which had a few broken spokes.

Meanwhile, the parts arrived and got a double cat scan from Lucy One Stroke and Tommy Two Stroke.

And I started making curlicue patterns.

So, curlicues out of #10 reed are hard to make. I’ve had a few goes. Here are the first pair, which I have rejected because I’m not happy with them. Followed by the next attempts, which I am.

Meanwhile …

I got the knack of curlicues. The trick is to soak one end of the cane and form it into the curl at a time. So, here is a gallery of curlicues for your enjoyment

Once all of them were installed, I did an all-over coat of medium walnut stain (Mowhawk).

The final task was installing the cane with a medium radio weave, which, when it was dry, I stained and shellacked. I used Mowhawk Medium Walnut stain and orange shellac.

This was a fun one. I thank the owner for the opportunity to bring this beauty back.