Is All Chair Seat Weaving Called, "Caning?"

The resounding technical answer to the question in this blog post’s title is “No.” Not all chair seat weaving is called “caning.”

There are numerous weaving techniques and materials used in chair seat weaving, and caning is just one.

Are you unsure which type of woven chair seat you have? Is it really chair caning or something else? Help is on the way!

Each woven chair seating technique has a specific name, although most people lump them together, calling them “caning” when what they really mean is “chair seat weaving.”

Traditional Hole-to-Hole Strand Caning

For example, traditional strand caning, or hole-to-hole cane weaving, uses thin cane strands woven through holes drilled around the perimeter of the seat frame.

When weaving the individual strands of cane through the holes, and you come to the end of the strand, use my “No Knot” technique to avoid tying knots on the bottom of the chair seats.

Hole-to-hole traditional hand chair caning on a curved back of rocking chair. — Hand-woven chair caning

Bottom of hole-to-hole strand cane seat with no tied knots. — Bottom of hole-to-hole cane seat with no tied knots

Cane Webbing or Spline Cane

Another type of chair caning uses a loom-woven “sheet” of cane applied to the groove around the perimeter of the seat frame and secured with a reed spline and glue.

RELATED READING: How to Install Cane Webbing

In the picture below, the fancy Victorian wicker chair has a close-woven cane webbing seat, which does not have the typical open-weave lattice look of a hole-to-hole cane seat.

Heart shaped Victorian wicker lady's chair with close-woven sheet cane seat. — Sheet cane or cane webbing seat

Paper Fibre Rush

The continuous-strand paper fibre rush material is woven around four rungs of the chair seat. When completed, it looks like four triangles or flaps of an envelope that meet in the center of the seat.

The man-made paper rush was invented in 1910 as a replacement for the laborious hand-gathered and hand-twisted natural cattail rush. Skilled weavers were needed for the hand-twisted rush, and it took a very long time to weave a seat.

So, the chair manufacturers were pleased to see that weaving with the continuous strand of paper rush was more economical in labor costs and material costs.

Paper rush was also used in the manufacture of wicker furniture as a replacement for the rattan reed before its invention.

Continuous strand paper fibre rush seatweaving in process with all four corners woven. — Paper rush seat in process

FURTHER READING: How to identify woven chair seat patterns on your chairs.

Pre-twisted Natural Rush (PTNR)

Another material used for rush weaving is a natural grass rush, pre-twisted into a continuous rope-like strand.

This material is used to imitate the laborious and expensive hand-twisted natural cattail leaf rush when paper fibre rush is not desired.

The same rush weaving pattern is used, but the material is easier to use and more readily sourced from suppliers than cattail leaves.

Pre-twisted natural rush material in process of being woven on a ladder back chair seat. — Pre-twisted natural rush (PTNR) seatweaving in process

Pre-twisted natural rush two-pound coil. — Two-pound coil of pre-twisted natural rush

Seagrass

The square green-painted footstool below features a woven checkerboard pattern in seagrass, formerly called Oriental Seagrass.

This checkerboard pattern is woven around the four-seat rungs, both top and bottom, creating a pocket between the two. The seagrass is slightly rough and can be hard on your hands while you weave.

Green painted square footstool with a checkerboard pattern weave using seagrass. — Checkerboard Seagrass Footstool

After reading this post, you’ll be well on your way to telling your chair caning repair professional exactly what type of chair seat you have when you call to schedule your appointment.

No more guessing and confusion, now you know not all chair seat weaving is called “chair caning.”