chair w/ hickory bark herringbone weave

Looks good, pretty time consuming, I bet. do you use greene material?

-- Marty Ohio

hi marty, well the bark is stripped from logs that are green yes .. the logs are cut when the sap is high and soaked in a pond … then stripped ( one of many ways to do it) .. the bark is usually then rolled up in to balls or rolls for later use… when u get ready to use it it has to be soaked in water to make it ply able to weave ... i have woven some chairs so tight that when the bark dried it busted the rungs out of the frame (not good) had to repair and re weave :(

I like the chair. If I may, how well does the hickory bark hold up? Do you have to recane often? Is it comfortable?

hi rikkor , thanks for looking !! i think hickory bark is the strongest and longest lasting natural material u can weave it last some 60 yrs… it is very strong and comfortable ... i have also used white oak splints and shaker tape ( cloth material ).... i have a chair that i done over 20 yrs ago that has been left on my open porch for 20 yr s i still drink coffee sitting it often and take to bluegrass festivals to use outside ... thanks for the question

Sorry to be a pest, do you finish the bark in any way?

hi rikkor , u aren’t being a pest at all!! i love this site and love talking about projects all questions are always welcome !! as for finish on the bark no i leave it all natural i have seen some chairs on porches in the mountains painted but im not quite sure why they wanted to hide the natural bark and i have 1 that i bought that had been painted also to put on the porch of my then young daughters playhouse 10×14) i built them

Great work and good for you to salvage someone else’s unwanted chairs. Thanks for doing your part to preserve the forgotten arts. Well done.

-- Ron, Twain Harte, Ca. Portable on site Sawmill Service http://westcoastlands.net/Sawmill.html http://westcoastlands.net/SawBucks2/phpBB3 http://www.portablesawmill.info

Good job!

-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX

another question for you… I’m new at this.
I managed to get my hands on 3 of my grandparents old ladder backs, and plan to put new hickory seats in two of them (the third was woven by my grandfather in the early ‘40’s and is still in decent shape).
I’ve stripped the old paint off of the frames and want to go with a natural finish before starting on the weaving. What type of finish should I use to bring out the character in these old frames?
Thanks for any help you can give!!!!!

-- Union, KY

hi there , thanks for asking. i like to use about 6 coats of polyurethane… which i buff out with 0000 steel wool in between coats . have u obtained the hickory bark yes to weave in it? im in versailles ky ... it is a great hobby to weave chairs and very useful as i play a guitar u cant have to many pickin chairs without arms when u have friends over to jam u can also e-mail me at da6512@aol.comhope that helps sincerely dennis