-​Here are two examples of a Mid-20th Century Caribbean Regency St. Croix mahogany woven cane rocking chairs. The key features of this style rocker are the caned back and seats and the scroll arms.

One of these rockers was caned in the traditional hand weaving process. The other uses the more modern, pressed cane technique. Unless you’re looking for the difference, you might not even notice that there is a difference. Aesthetically there is little difference between the two but the replacement process is very different — and so is the cost.

​A chair that is caned by hand means that every strand is woven by someone, weaving the cane twice vertically, twice horizontally and a diagonal in each direction. It’s a time consuming process — and a little hard on the hands! The cost for repairing a hand-caned chair is based on the number of holes around the perimeter. The rate can range from $2 - $4 per hole.

The close-up shot shows the binder cane that covers the individual holes around the edge of the chair’s back and seat openings. This is the best clue to determine a hand-caned chair or rocker.

The second rocker was caned using pressed cane, which is woven as a sheet and held in place on the chair using spline. Repair for chair varies from about $100 - $150.

The back on the pressed cane rocker had worn through in several spots and the owner decided to have the cane replaced. They also opted to have it stained to match the existing seat color (in its native state cane is about the color of a manila envelope and ages darker in about a year or two.) The custom staining adds about $50.

The hand-caned rocker had a torn seat. With about 72 holes around the outside it would cost the owner $288 for the caning. This owner opted to have the seat upholstered to save money yet still have a good-looking, functional piece of furniture.

To do this we make a wooden seat that covers most of the existing seat, a sheet of 1” foam, and upholstery fabric. It’s then screwed to the seat using the perimeter holes, which allow the rocker to be recaned in the future. This option comes in around $125 - $150 — about half the price of hand caning.

It's ill advised to try to convert a hand-caned chair to a pressed cane chair. Routing out a groove for the spline takes away from the strength of the furniture. We will never do this kind of conversion.
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Hand caning isn't difficult to learn for the average person. Some find the process tedious and monotonous, while others find it relaxing and meditative. If have a chair to recane, and you’re interested in learning, give us a call.

​We often joke that some people should not be allowed to handled tools because they're just bad with them. (And don't get us started on Gorilla glue!) But sometimes, no matter how bad of a job someone did, you have to admire the fact that they tried. 

Case in point, this recliner. The photo on the right shows how the springs should look (except the fastener is different).

Sadly, we lost one of our employees in December. He was 53 years young. Todd Bales, left, had worked in our Finish Shop for about 6 years. You probably never met him but if you had any finish work done, you've seen his work. 

He was our stripper and prep guy in The Finish Shop, and by nature a kind of solitary guy. The job was messy, stinky and dusty, but he loved it. He was thrilled when we moved to our new building with more light, heat and its own bathroom! 

In December Todd hadn't been feeling well. He went to the doctor and learned he had diabetes, which had affected his heart. He stopped by to see us two weeks before Christmas but the next week his health took a sudden turn and we lost him on December 18. 

​About 99 percent of what we do is furniture repair, either in our shop of on-site. Every now and then someone comes to us wanting something custom made.

For the past week or so Bryan has been working on making four classic dining room chairs for a customer. Bryan has a sample to build from, which on one hand shows him exactly what he needs to do, but on the other hand, he needs to do it exactly!

He must determine the wood to use (white oak in this case, which is a nice dense hardwood), define and measure each of the 17 pieces, figure out the joinery (there will be no nails or screws in these chairs!) and any special techniques needed. Sounds easy, but even for basic chairs like these, something as simple as a 4 degree angle can be complicated if you don’t know what you’re doing.  
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He has all the legs and rails cut, bored holes for the dowels and tenons. This week he’ll work on the backs and seats; then it’s on to sanding and finishing.