pressed cane repair of old rocking chair

pretty beat up...both seat boards needed repair

Driving home from errands one day, I saw this Brentwood rocker sitting out at the curb from the corner of my eye.  Pleading with my hubby to "turn around" he groaned but relented, "the last thing we need is more junk" he said, but I felt I could give this chair some TLC and bring it back again. 

So we loaded it up in the truck, and after it sat on my front porch all winter, and all spring, and half of this summer....I finally got started.

I decided to remove the bottom and start here

So I started by unscrewing the seat base and ripping off the old cane sheeting.  I next had to do the hardest part of this whole project, removing the old spline and glue from the groove.

I studied how to do this first....here are two sources i highly recommend, the company peerless rattan has an instructional slide show, and there is also a two-part video by the wickerguru showing step-by-step instructions that is fantastic!

slowly and carefully cleaning out the groove

tools I used were chisels, small hammer, flat head screwdriver and razer

Meanwhile I soaked the new cane sheeting and spline for 30 minutes in warm water that I had previously purchased from peerless rattan to make it subtle.  it was trimmed to 2 inches larger than the frame on all 4 sides.  With a wedge after carefully lining up and centering sheet, I pressed the sheet down into the groove lightly tapping with hammer and working my way around entire frame. Next I trimmed excess cane with the razer.

using a wood wedge to push cane into grove

cane has now been pushed in around entire perimeter of frame

trimming off cane just above groove edge

 Then I followed with an application of wood glue along the length of groove which will secure the spline once tapped in. 

the groove needs to be filled with glue

lay glue along top hollow of groove to prepare for spline

after applying glue wipe off any excess that may have gotten on cane sheeting or frame
edge because the glue could hinder any staining that may be applied afterwards

Next I tapped in the spline starting at the back of the seat frame and finished with a 45 degree cut to make spline ends meet snugly.  Followed by some more tapping of spline again just to make sure it is in good and secure. this final tapping squished some more glue out of the groove, so I needed to give it another wipe once done.

wipe off excess glue again with damp cloth or sponge

let dry for 24 hours.....all done!

The whole project went smoother than I thought. but removing the old spline was very messy and truly the toughest part, I worked on and off for about 2 hours cleaning the groove.  Once I was ready to work with the new cane sheeting, it was pretty straight forward and it took me less than an hour from that point on to complete project.  

Now i still have to do the second frame, then paint the chair....so stay tuned!