Straightback Chair Gets New Cane Seat

Caned Seat After

Caned Seat Broken

This was a relatively simple caning job because it was the seat only, always preferable to the seat and back, which tends to be harder to reach. This is a circa 1930’s chair which had the original caning. One of the disadvantages of caning is that after time, it gets brittle and tends to break or bend. 

This one needed replacement. A trick that you can do if you have a caned chair with a slightly bended seat is to put a damp towel on the seat overnight. The damp towel will soften the caning and once removed, it should tighten up again once dry and the sagging seat problem should be solved. If it’s severely sagging or broken, there’s no fix for it other than a total replacement. 

Caning does come in different thicknesses. You can usually tell what size you require by the size of the holes. The larger the holes, the thicker the caning needed,  however, you can use smaller caning with larger holes but not vice-versa. But either way, a newly caned chair seat is nice and fresh and lends many more years to the life and use of the chair.