How to fix a broken cane chair frame

Chair Caning Tip of the Day

One time during a chair caning class at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota, the class got off to a slow start.

We had to fix a broken hole cane chair frame and a rocker frame in a repair session before we could actually begin the class weaving process.

Seagulls on the roof of the Teacher's loft at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. — Seagulls atop the Fish House at North House Folk School

Have you ever had this happen to you, finding the hole cane chair frame is broken all through the drilled holes?

Broken chair seat frame down all the holes in the back chair rail. Previous caning was installed too tightly and caused the break. — Back rail of cane seat broken through drilled holes.

Luckily, the repairs of gluing and clamping didn’t take too long and then we were good to go…You can follow these tips and fix your broken hole cane frames, too.

broken Hole Cane seat frames Need Repairs

Both of the students’ chair frames had split and broken rails. The back rail of the chair seat frame was broken all the way from corner to corner.

And the Lincoln rocker front seat rail was cracked and split from the left corner to the middle of the rail.

Chair frame that was converted from cane webbing to a hole-to-hole cane seat with all the drilled holes around the perimeter. — Pressed cane converted to hole-to-hole chair frame

Repairing the broken Hole Cane rocker frame

On the Lincoln rocker, we opened the split on the front rail as much as possible, applied wood glue, and used clamps to hold the rail together to dry for a while.

Gluing up the broken rail on this hole cane Lincoln rocker seat frame. — Crack in front rail through holes of Lincoln rocker

Then we applied three screws between the holes, attached from the back or inside of the rail and counter sunk the screw heads. This way the repairs were not visible.

The first step of strand caning this Lincoln rocker seat has begun. — First step on hand caning on Lincoln rocker

Repairing the broken Hole Cane Chair frame

The little chair was a different story since someone had converted a previously pressed cane or cane webbing seat to a hole-to-hole cane seat somewhere along the line.

They didn’t drill the holes evenly spaced, and they were too close to the inner edge of the spline groove.

So the rail split in the back when the new strand cane dried and pulled tightly on those holes.

It’s also possible that the previous weaver had the tension of the cane seat put in too tightly, which also breaks the frame.

Close-up of original cane webbing chair seat, converted to hole cane somewhere along the line. — Cane webbing chair seat converted to hole-to-hole

Frequently, when you try to convert the cane style from spline cane to hole-to-hole or vice versa, it weakens the chair seat and just might cause damage like this.

Broken back rail of this cane webbing chair seat that has been converted to hole-to-hole cane. — Cane webbing chair converted to hole-to-hole cane

On the chair frame, we pried off the broken part of the chair frame and removed all the remaining cane that was left in the holes.

We also cleaned the glue from both sides of the break as best we could because new glue won’t stick to old glue.

Next, we applied wood glue and clamped the rail together until the glue set.

You can use trim screws, cabinet screws or drywall screws, just so they are long enough to go through the break but not too deep into the frame.

Pre-drilled the holes horizontally for the three screws put between the frame holes from the inside back rail.

Be sure to countersink the screw holes so the screws are flush with the rail and are not too visible.

This way, you could only see the repaired area and the screws if you turned the chair upside down and actually looked closely.

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the gluing-up process after we fixed the broken hole cane seat frame.

Thanks to Russ and Dennis for all their help and advice on this project!

Broken chair frame all repaired and glued up and first step of hole-to-hole caning has begun. — Wood repairs all made and first step in caning nearly done.

Use Cane Chair frames as intended

Keep the following chair caning tips in mind:

So the rule of thumb is to leave well enough alone; only replace with like materials
Replace hole cane seats with strand cane and replace cane webbing seats with loom-woven cane webbing material
Don’t try to convert from spline or cane webbing to hole cane seats
And if you have a traditional hole-caned seat, don’t convert to cane webbing or spline cane
Whatever was originally used when the manufacturer created the chair should be used consistently throughout the chair’s life

Students weaving their hole cane chair seats during caning class at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN November 2014. — Nearly through the first four caning steps!

Please keep in mind that whenever you take one of your chairs to a chair caning class, make sure all the frames are in excellent shape. Any refinishing, painting, varnishing, or staining should be done before class time, too.

Otherwise, you will be slowing down the entire class in order to get the frames in proper form to weave the seats.