Chair Caning & Weaving How-To

Ah, chair caning!  This was on my teenage bucket list and something I learned from my grandfather when I was in high school.  Chair weaving looked so very difficult, but I found it meditative, and calming in fact.

I purchased several antique chairs with the holes so I knew they were to be hole-to-hole caned, learned how to strip and refinish them from a friend, and would then use my grandfather’s chair caning instructions to weave beautiful seats for my antique chairs.

Chair caning supplies can be easily purchased, but I was lucky to have an excited grandfather who purchased all of my supplies.

History of Chair Caning

Weaving and caning the seats of chairs is an ancient art. It has been an art for centuries! 

A daybed woven in a similar fashion to what we see today was found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb, and the daybed is dated back to 1300 BC. 

Although chair caning was an art in many parts of Europe and in the Eastern area of the world in the 1600s, it became most popular in the 1700s through the1900s. 

The materials and methods used today for chair caning and chair weaving have not changed much since that time period. Learn more about chair caning supplies and scroll down for chair caning how to tutorials!

What material is used to cane chairs?

There are several materials used in chair caning.

• Chair cane
• Rattan reed
• Hand-twisted natural bulrush
• Cattail leaves

Cane and rattan are from the same plant that grows in the rainforest, called the rattan palm. The thorns on the rattan pole are removed and shiny bark is what is known as chair cane.

Because the bark used for cane is glossy and smooth, it does not take paint or stain well.

After the glossy bark is removed, a porous and pithy inner part of the rattan palm is left.  It is what is known as reed.  Since reed is porous, it can be painted or stained, unlike the cane.

Cattail leaves can also be harvested and used to cane or weave and are easily found near ponds. Bulrush leaves are also harvested and make for excellent chair caning, but it is difficult to find.  It grows near streams and is much more difficult to harvest than cattail leaves.

Bulrush, preferred over cattail leaves for chair chaining, is hand-twisted into a roping that is used. Because it is hard to find, takes a lot of work to hand-twist, and is an advanced weaving process, it is becoming a dying art. 

These materials are often used in basket weaving as well.

What are the three types of chair caning?

The most common is the traditional hole-to-hole hand caning, which is the chair caning technique that I learned. There are many steps to this artful caning and the finished seat has small octagon patterns all over it.

Some chairs have grooves instead of holes.  For this, a pre-woven sheet of cane is cut and inserted into the groove and then secured with glue and a reed spline. This is called cane webbing.  No weaving is necessary for this technique.

The third technique for chair caning is when very wide strips of cane are woven around the seat dowels of chairs or stools.  Like the hole-to-hole caning, it is much more labor intensive than the cane webbing. This form of chair caning is called wide binding. 

Scroll down the page to find video and written chair caning instructions, history of chair caning, popular chair caning styles, and even instructions on how to care for caned weaving.

We hope you enjoy the many links to chair caning topics.  Try your hand at this art.  It is not difficult after a little bit of practice and makes for a beautiful finished piece of furniture of which to be proud.