Q about tying off caning on seats

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sluggo
Posts: 244
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:17 pm
Location: Vancouver BC

Q about tying off caning on seats

Post by sluggo »

Hi,
I'm putting the binding cane on my seats and I find that it is difficult to get the canoe to have a nice tight setting knot on these last pieces. Since some of the end holes already have two knots on them, the third knot from the binding sits over top and floats a bit. Pulling tight doesn't seat it as good as I'd like, unless I really pull hard. Pulling hard makes the binding cane look not so good though. I'm thinking about putting some CA glue or head cement on these last pieces. Any other thoughts?

thanks
Tim Eastman
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Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A.

Post by Tim Eastman »

This looks like a job for - dat ta da daaa Patrick's Dad,..

Oh Randy,.. paging Randy Pfeifer.

Randy has some links I think to shutterfly showing his son working on some caned seats. Turned out drop dead gorgeous.

Between him and his son I'd bet they can come up with an answer for you.
Tim Eastman
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Patricks Dad
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Post by Patricks Dad »

Actually Patrick might have some thoughts on this... He did all the caning on our first canoe. Patrick??
Randy Pfeifer
(847) 341-0618
Randy.Pfeifer1@gmail.com
sluggo
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Location: Vancouver BC

Post by sluggo »

Here is one of my seats with the caning finished, other than replacing the corner pegs with pegs made of a softwood.

Image

The flash photo makes the varnished wood look all washed out, but in reality the cherry frame is quite nice (if I may say so myself!). The photo gallery has only two other seat pictures, one of the frame only and one of the caning after a few steps are completed. http://shmish.smugmug.com/gallery/73853 ... 6817_3ZxVf

Oh, I guess this is also the fruits of my labour after my questions and ponderings on joinery for the seat frames, where I finally decided to do a hand-chiseled mortise and tenon.
Tim Eastman
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Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A.

Post by Tim Eastman »

Boy sluggo - I don't see anything to complain about there. It looks fantastic. Cherry can hide it's nice qualities due to flash. We had a seat with some beautiful figuring that looked all mottled in the photos but in sunlight was stunning.
Tim Eastman
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sluggo
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Location: Vancouver BC

Post by sluggo »

Thanks Tim, no complaints from me. I just hope it doesn't unravel :)

Any ideas on where or how to get or make softwood pegs? All I can think of is to put a piece of wrc in my drill and have a friend hold the button while I run a rasp on the wood to taper the peg. I can't imagine it would make the best taper though. Maybe I need to find someone with a lathe.
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Patricks Dad
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Post by Patricks Dad »

wooden golf tees?
Randy Pfeifer
(847) 341-0618
Randy.Pfeifer1@gmail.com
Tim Eastman
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Post by Tim Eastman »

I'm thinking you can do something as simple as taking WRC and knocking the corners off making an octagon pin. That will still give you some "squish" resistance. Randy - what did Patrick use tying off?
Tim Eastman
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AlanWS
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Location: Shorewood, WI

Post by AlanWS »

I think yours looks good, but another option is to simply leave off the binding as I did. My weave is different from usual: notice all the different sizes of 5-pointed stars. It's an aperiodic tiling that does not repeat, even if the pattern is extended to infinity.
Image
Alan
patrick
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Location: Arizona

Post by patrick »

I've been away from the forum for quite awhile, haven't I? :embarassed
I don't recall if I ended up with more than two knots in any one hole, but I know I never had a problem pulling the knots tight enough. I don't know what sort of knot you are using, but all that is really needed is a simple "loop beneath itself" kind of deal, keeping it all tucked on the underside of the seat to avoid bumps on the top.
We also didn't use any binding...
As for pegs, scraps of cedar work just fine. We had plenty of wedge shaped, nicely sized pieces left over.
sluggo
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Location: Vancouver BC

Post by sluggo »

I thought about leaving the binding off. I kind of thought it looked better without the binding, my wife thought it was better with. 2 against 1 (wife & Gilpatrick vs. me). Even without the binding I have cane pegged in the corners with no adjacent cane to loop under for a simple knot.
dmeenkster
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Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:34 am

Post by dmeenkster »

I use a technique called couching that I learned from Wayne Sharps website, I use a cut off golf tee and pull the cane over the top of the peg from both directions and tie the cane off underneath. Wayne explains it well on his website.
http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~wayne/Caning/CaneStep7.htm
Billyjackass
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AlanWS - what a beautiful pattern!

Post by Billyjackass »

Do you know where I can find instructions for that 5-pointed star pattern? Do the sides of the frame need to be at a specific angle? Looks that way...72 degrees maybe?

Please and thank you.
sluggo
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Location: Vancouver BC

Post by sluggo »

I made tapered dowels this morning. I started with a piece of wrc about 3/4" square. I used a xacto knife and a rasp to shape the dowel, it probably took about 5min per dowel.
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