caning knots or not? How does your bottom look?

Today’s WEDNESDAY WICKER WISDOM deals with the way the bottom or underneath side of a hole-to-hole cane chair looks, NOT your own bottom, thankfully!

How neatly do you tie off the ends of your cane strands when weaving a 7-step pattern traditional hole cane seat?

If you follow my directions and use my “No-Knot” system of dealing with the ends it won’t look like the one below in this picture.

Can you believe that hot mess? Yikes!
 

bad chair caning knot tying
This is the way you do NOT want to tie off end strands when chair caning!

This is just about the worst job of tying cane knots on the bottom of a chair seat as I have ever seen!

And to top it all off, the caning pattern was done all wrong, too.

About the only thing that could have made the bottom of this chair seat look any worse, would be to have glue globs all over the cane going from hole to hole.


incorrect pattern used in this hole cane seat
Incorrect pattern was used in this hole cane seat

Bottoms Up, Let’s Take a Gander at Your cane bottom

The bottom of your hole-to-hole cane seats should look more neat and attractive like this one below.

There are no knots and it’s very neat and tidy, don’t you agree?

bottom cane seat using no-knot system
Bottom of a round hole cane seat using my”No-Knot” system of finishing.

How to create the “No-Knot” System?

It’s a very simple and versatile technique that doesn’t take as much time as tying knots, either.

What you are doing in this technique is to “sandwich” the cane tail between the bottom of the frame and the long weaving strand as you go into the hole.

The tail only needs to go slightly into the hole to keep it nice and snug but also can go all the way through to the top of the seat.

On the topside, trim the cane tail to just slightly below the seat frame, inside the hole.

To get the smooth, nice look to your cane bottoms without tying all those nasty knots, look at my video below, the “No-Knot System of Not Tying Knots”.

Here’s the finished product using the traditional 7-step pattern in this hole cane seat:

Bottom of square hole-to-hole cane chair showing corner detail of my "No-knot system".

Bottom of square hole-to-hole cane chair showing the use of my "No-knot system" around the perimeter of the seat.

7-step pattern of hole cane chair seat
Completed 7-step method of traditional hand caning

To get all your cane chair seats to look this good, see my Chair Caning Instructions article page!

How does your bottom measure up? Please leave your comments below and tell me what techniques you use to keep your bottoms lookin’ good!

wicker braid separator graphic

~~ Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much ~~

Until next time, Happy Weaving!

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About The Author

5 thoughts on “caning knots or not? How does your bottom look?”

  1. Catheryn, I’ve been weaving chair seats for 30 years and I HATE tying off the ends – what a revelation! I can’t wait for the opportunity to try your method. Thanks.
    glenda

    1. Oh that’s fantastic Glenda, glad I could help you out. I’ve been using this “No-Knot” technique since I first started chair caning back in 1975 after examining some old cane seats from the 1880s and that’s the method the previous caner had used.

  2. IT is easiest to apply stain to cane seats or backs by sloping the cane about 45 degrees and starting at the top , going side to side and progessing downward[ the liquid runs downward] PRESTO an even and quicker job…..stephen

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