My wife and I spent a couple of nights at the Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. 

 

This is one of the shaker chairs on display there.

 

 

 

 

Ernie posted his plans for the chair vice to do the weaving http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/Shaker-Weaving-Vice-Drawings.pdf

 

BTW, current issue of Woodworker's Journal also has the article on how to build the chair shown in the video.

On 8/27/2016 at 10:25 PM, John Morris said:

 

Bill, working on some info now, I have a question out to my chair making mentor, and I am perusing some books as I type this. Hopefully I'll have an answer soon.

 

@John Morris

 

I got to looking at the chair yesterday and remembered this thread. Any luck in finding something that will help?

 

Looking a little closer at the stretchers I noticed a couple of things; there were some painted over tack holes near the ends of a couple of the stretchers, and I found one small tack embedded in the the front stretcher. This is strong evidence that it may have had a tape seat originally.

Sorry I let this one lapse Bill!

I did put a call out to a life long chair maker and expert in the Shaker field and here is what he stated:

Quote

There isn't enough info here to guess what the seating material might have been before the canvas seat was applied.  Splint maybe.  Rush.  Maybe even rawhide strips.  There's just too many different materials that can be woven over a set of seat rungs.

I also perused my Shaker books and I agree with him, it would be hard to tell.

But, since your new finding of tacks, the only reason to use tacks, that is a strong argument the chair was woven with tape.

Bill, looking at your rocker again, we may be barking up the wrong tree here completely. Since the image was posted in this topic, I assumed we were talking about a chair made in the shaker tradition, (I was racing through these topics back when this was posted) and I re-read your post about the chair, no where did you say it was shaker, so your not to blame, I just assumed. I am looking through my shaker books and most chairs I see have horizontal back slats, along with the legs are not bored into the rockers as yours are. The shaker rockers I am reading about have the legs lapped over the rockers. Hmmm, this doesn't mean it's not shaker, just very interesting is all.

4 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Sorry I let this one lapse Bill!

I did put a call out to a life long chair maker and expert in the Shaker field and here is what he stated:

I also perused my Shaker books and I agree with him, it would be hard to tell.

But, since your new finding of tacks, the only reason to use tacks, that is a strong argument the chair was woven with tape.

 

Thanks, John. I suspected that the original would be very hard to determine. Your research mirrors mine, however. When I looked a little closer the other day to see what needed to be done to strip the old paint off and check the joints, a tack hole revealed itself. Looking closer I found another tack embedded in the front rail and painted over.

 

Not really definitive evidence that the seat was originally tape, but strong enough to push me in that direction. So, I'm tired of looking at it in the condition that it is in now. Time to strip, repaint and learn a new skill. I'm going to go with tape, which I think will look good on the chair.

 

The pictures I posted don't really indicate the true scale of the chair. It is small. Too big for a very small child, but way too small for the average sized adult (even 100 years ago). It will look really nice to see it redone, even if it is just used as an accent piece.

 

Thanks, again.

2 minutes ago, schnewj said:

The pictures I posted don't really indicate the true scale of the chair. It is small. Too big for a very small child, but way too small for the average sized adult (even 100 years ago). It will look really nice to see it redone, even if it is just used as an accent piece.

I love that chair, it's old, has history, and yes, it'll look really nice with tape. So, what are you going to do for the new finish, and what color tapes are you going to use?

19 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Sorry I let this one lapse Bill!

I did put a call out to a life long chair maker and expert in the Shaker field and here is what he stated:

I also perused my Shaker books and I agree with him, it would be hard to tell.

But, since your new finding of tacks, the only reason to use tacks, that is a strong argument the chair was woven with tape.

 

Not your fault, John! I don't know the original pedigree. It looks somewhat like a shaker style, but not really. I suspect that it was a mass produced piece make to mimic the Shaker Style. Anyway, I think that it would look good with a tape seat.

 

The tack and tack holes point in that direction as a strong original candidate.

4 minutes ago, John Morris said:

I love that chair, it's old, has history, and yes, it'll look really nice with tape. So, what are you going to do for the new finish, and what color tapes are you going to use?

 

TBD!

 

When I strip it I'll have a better idea as to the original finish/color. However, I suspect for now that the white is the original color for the chair. As for the tape, I was thinking either a black/blue or black/green combo. Then, again, gray would be nice in the mix. There are just so many nice combos that I make that decision when I have too.

6 minutes ago, schnewj said:

 

Not your fault, John! I don't know the original pedigree. It looks somewhat like a shaker style, but not really. The back slats are not Shaker style. I suspect that it was a mass produced piece make to mimic the Shaker Style. Anyway, I think that it would look good with a tape seat.

 

The tack and tack holes point in that direction as a strong original candidate.

 

Speaking of Drew Langsner, looks like he'd like to hang up the drawknife.   I got his newsletter today.  Not real impressed with the photo of the Shaker tape seat in multi-colors.   Looks like they were using up scraps

 

http://www.countryworkshops.org/newsletter55/index.html

43 minutes ago, kmealy said:

Speaking of Drew Langsner, looks like he'd like to hang up the drawknife.   I got his newsletter today.  Not real impressed with the photo of the Shaker tape seat in multi-colors.   Looks like they were using up scraps

 

http://www.countryworkshops.org/newsletter55/index.html

 

I would definitely!!! agree with that.  Those aren't just test patterns?

4 hours ago, kmealy said:

Speaking of Drew Langsner, looks like he'd like to hang up the drawknife.   I got his newsletter today.  Not real impressed with the photo of the Shaker tape seat in multi-colors.   Looks like they were using up scraps

 

http://www.countryworkshops.org/newsletter55/index.html

 

This is exactly what they did. It says, in the description that they had been saving the scraps for awhile with the intent of doing this or in case someone ran out and needed some extra tape(I guess in a class). The result makes me a little queasy...