Danish Cord Bench #6: Weaving the Weft and Done

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This is part 6 in a 6 part series: Danish Cord Bench

  1. Design
...
  1. Weaving the Warp
  2. Weaving the Weft and Done

The weft weaving starts in one corner, attaching the a doubled cord (roughly 120ft length folded in half) at its center onto a side rail.  This is where I should have tacked it in place prior to the final wraps over the rail.  It's no big deal, it will never be seen unless someone peeks underneath. 
The weaving starts with a wrap around the stretcher, catching the pigtail that's the end of the rail wrapping.


The first row butts up against the cow hitch loops on the rail.  The entire 60ft of doubled cord has to be pulled through because the weft strands make their turn at the other end by circling the far stretcher.  This slowly gets more and more difficult as the weft moves across the bench and the warp cords tighten up.  You kind of get into a rhythm, though. 


From underneath, you can see the pigtail slowly getting concealed under the stretcher wraps.


And that's what 120ft of cord fills in.  There's some wasted cord because there's only one good place to hide the knot that joins the next 120ft of cord, which is under the wide center band of warp cords.


This is nearing the end of the 2nd length of cord.  Why not use a single longer piece of cord and do the full seat in one go?  The problem is that pulling that much cord back and forth through the warp cords would be more work.  And the longer the cords, the more likely they'll get tangled as they pile-up on the floor when you're pulling it through.  (and there's already a generous amount of tangling to deal with shorter lengths)

On the center wide band, I wanted to mimic the pattern that's on the back of the Wegner CH-25 chair, which catches the inner 4 strands on one pass and the pair of outer 2 strands on the next, before returning a full 8 over/under pattern.  I found that I had made the center warp cords a little too tight to make that pattern in a tidy way, so I just caught the inner 4 before returning to the normal pattern.  It still provides some visual interest to the center band.  There will be 3 of these when I'm done.


Time to join another length of cord. 

I'm using the knot that Caleb James recommended in his weaving article in Popular Woodworking.  The working ends of the last cords are passed through the loop in the next length, one end is wrapped behind and around to the other end, and the pair of ends get an overhand knot.  It's kind of a chunky knot with Danish cord, but it all fits under the center band of warp cords.


I left a couple inches of the trimmed ends in place in case I needed to adjust something.  I can trim them off later from underneath if needed.  The center stretcher conceals the knots on the underside somewhat.


Getting closer.   


Finished! Well, all except going back to tug the warp cords around so they're straight and perpendicular to the sides. 
I estimate that it took close to 800ft of cord to complete.



I moved it out of the messy workshop to stake my claim on the inaugural sit test of the finished bench.  Feels good to me!




Nicely done, that is a lot of cord on the second half of the weave. I like the pattern in the center.

Main Street to the Mountains

Wow, Ross, that’s impressive and very attractive. I like that center section too. You can tell that your frame is very strong. It sounds like it had to withstand some serious forces as you strung the cording.

Your friends are going to love it.
man that came out real sweet ross. that weaving is incredible.

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.


 Eric - the "Loft"
 commented about 2 hours ago
Nicely done, that is a lot of cord on the second half of the weave. I like the pattern in the center.
Thanks, Eric.  That was 800ft total - both warp and weft.  


 Ron Stewart
 commented about 1 hour ago
Wow, Ross, that’s impressive and very attractive. I like that center section too. You can tell that your frame is very strong. It sounds like it had to withstand some serious forces as you strung the cording.

Your friends are going to love it.
Thanks, Ron.  I hope they like it and use it.


 pottz
 commented 1 minute ago
new
man that came out real sweet ross. that weaving is incredible.
Thanks, pottz.   The weaving looks meh at the warp stage, but weaving the weft totally transforms it.
Neat and good loooking weave, good work. 

The reason Wegner and others did not use this style of weave (and instead used the metal hooks underneath) is that the knots can slide down and the whole seat have a tendency to sit lower in the frame after some time. For a bench that is probably not a problem but in a much used chair it can be a bit annoying to have a rail sticking up under the knees.

I thoroughly enjoyed this blog series, the small details, your considerations during the process, good stuff

"The good chair is a task one is never completely done with" Hans Wegner

That’s something I never considered and never heard (read) mentioned before.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for that.  

I’m glad you enjoyed the series - I did too!
Probably not a large issue - but, being a woodworkers forum - the more nerdy stuff deserves attention as well

"The good chair is a task one is never completely done with" Hans Wegner