I started this blog when I was restoring a 1917 Kennebec canoe. Now I have added to my boat building adventures, and built a kayak. I also have pages about birds and astronomy.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Caning the first seat

I thought caning the seat would be an afternoon's work.  After all, they are rather small and how hard could it be?  It ended up taking something like 8 or 10 hours for one seat.
Starting the caning process.  This is the first time I ever did this, so I had to keep the instruction book handy.

The first three layers are really quick because there's no weaving involved.  Two vertical layers and one horizontal

After 4 layers it starting to go a bit slower.

The first diagonal weave took hours.  You can only pull it through so many weaves at a time, so each strip takes 3 or 4 pulls through. The next day a mysterious blister appeared on my thumb and it took a moment to recall what could have caused it.

All finished, except for the edge trim.

Detail of the weave and edge trim

The final product.  I'm planning on a thin coat of varnish on the top side only, although this is a subject of much discussion on the wood canoe forums.

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