Danish Cord Seat - #6 Weaving in the Wefts & Footpads

Weaving in the weft is next.  That starts with a 50’ long piece of cord folded in half to make a loop set between the two side stretchers.  The two cord ends are run up through the loop and over the front top stretcher.  From there they alternate going over the first set of warp cords then under the next set and so on until reaching the other end.

At the other end the cord goes over the top of the top stretcher down the outside face then completely around the bottom stretcher.  From there the cord comes from the inside of the seat back between the two stretchers to the outside face then up the face and over the top stretcher.  The over and under weaving continues except this time instead of starting by going over the first warp the cord goes under it.

Here is what the first two woven rows look like.  To make it a little easier to weave and to reduce the wear and tear to the cord I used a thin lath to set their paths.  It preforms roughly the same function as a pair of heddles on a traditional loom.  It also allows me to quickly check to see if I get out of the over under sequence as it’s pretty easy to end up missing a change in direction and having the weavers go over or under a couple of adjacent warps.  From here on it’s a matter of weaving back and forth to fill in the seat area.  When the length of cording gets short new lengths are spliced in using almost the same process as before.  The difference is one of the weavers is added on the left while the other is added on the right.  It can get a little confusing with two active weavers and two inactive ones that I swear are working together to get tangled up and confuse me.

When getting close to the end where there are only a few more passes to go there is not room to use the lath to set the weave path so I switched to a 3/16” brass rod that gave me space for a few more passes.  Eventually there was no room for even the brass rod which means the weaving process slowed dramatically.  To weave a single row increased from about 3 minutes to 20.  That’s because only two of the warps could be crossed due to the friction of the weavers across them.  Then before going on to the next warps all the cord had to be pulled and snugged to that point.  I could have used a lot more force to pull the cords to cross more of the warps at a time but was worried about the stress and friction abrading the cord.  Remember that at this point there is still about 25’ of cord being rubbed across each warp as the weave progresses. 

One thing I did not expect was that during the weaving process the warps were pulled out of alignment into a slight curve.  After the last set of weavers are installed a small steel drift punch is used to adjust the warps to remove the curve and bring the warps back into a straight line. 

Also, as I made the weaves the spacing varied slightly between the alternating rows (warps) of cord so using the same drift punch the spacing got tightened up and made consistent.  When that was done another couple of rows of weavers were needed to fill out the seat.  Here is what the completed straightened and aligned woven seat looks like.

With the actual seat weaving done the finishing bit is to tie the weavers or wefts off.  That is pretty simple after the final weave the cords are brought down over the face of both side stretchers and under the bottom.  The inside weaver is then pulled between the upper and lower side stretcher and wrapped around the second weaver creating a loop that looks just like the starting one as seen here.  The loop cord is then pulled snug.

The seat is flipped over and on the underside of the seat the two weavers are tied off with a square knot completing the woven seat.  I did trim the excess cord a little more from what is shown here and added a dab of glue on the ends to prevent the cord from fraying.

Now, there is just one last detail left to address.  Since the seat will be placed on a wood floor a pad needs to be added to the bottom of the legs to keep them from scratching the oak flooring finish.  Keeping with the natural materials used in the project I decided to pass on using Teflon glides.  Felt pads were not used for appearance purposes and because the ones I have were either too thin to be useful or were too thick and looked bulky.  What did fit from an appearance and functional standpoint was some cork that I had left over from the Cam Clamps I made.  The left photo below shows the cork right after it had been attached to the leg bottoms using double faced foam tape.  The right photo is after going back and dyeing the edges black with the India Ink so they would not show up.

Here are a couple of photos of the completed seat.  The woven area is really not all that large at only 18” x 13” but there is still a whole lot of cord needed to make it.  The 2-pound bundle had about 360’ of cord and I used 342’.  For a while when I was about a third of the way through the weaving, I was worried about running short.  Fortunately, that did not happen.  One thing that surprised me was the sheer amount of time it took to do the weaving.  As I mentioned earlier after three hours or so of weaving and keeping a constant tension on the cording my fingers got tired.  Since there was no completion deadline I could just quit for the day and do other things, like work on writing this blog.  All told it took about 8 days or roughly 20 hours of work to do the full weave. 

Now that I have had a chance to use the seat for a bit it’s just the right height and size to sit on when putting on socks and sandals.  I suppose it would work when putting on shoes too but here in the desert it seldom gets that cold 😊.

Danish Cord Seat - #5 Mounting the Warps

After marking the warps and cutting off 50 feet of the cord it’s time to start weaving the seat.  In the lower right you can see the instructions for weaving and you can bet I will be looking at them a whole lot.

The weaving instructions here in the blog are an overview of the process.  For really good detailed instructions, drawings and photos check out Fine Woodworking’s article “Weave a Seat with Danish Cord” in the October issue #284. 

The warp mounting starts at the front left which is why there is an “F” on the inside of the stretcher.  Cleverly enough there is a “B” on the back stretcher.  First is to clamp the cord to the inside of the front stretcher then make one full wrap around it and head toward the back-left corner.

Here is the back-left corner where the cord is run across the top of the stretcher down the back outer face, under then up and over the cord coming from the front.  The cord then continues down the inside face of the back stretcher under it, up the back outside face and through the loop heading back toward the front.

Heading back to the front left corner the cord runs on the left side of the first warp cord, down the front of the stretcher, underneath it, back up the inside of the front stretcher looping over both warp cords then back down and under the stretcher.  The free end of the cord in the photo diagonally runs off to the left.  The starting end of the cord is clamped to the stretcher with the blue clamp.

Taking the cord from under the stretcher five wraps are made around it.  The sixth wrap heads toward the back stretcher for the second front to back warp.

When the cord gets to the back stretcher the same process is followed as before.  Wrapping the cord around the stretcher, under then up and over the cord coming from the front.  The cord then goes down the inside face of the stretcher under it, up over and through the loop to head back toward the front.

This process is continued back and forth until you have just enough cord to do a set of wraps around the front, a warp to the back and return to the front plus the second set of wraps around the front stretcher.  Before starting this sequence, the next 50’ of cord is clamped to the inside of the front stretcher.  The wraps go over the starting end of the new 50’ length locking it in place.  Here you can see where that process is just starting with the new cord set in place.  The “X” on the inside face of the stretcher is the center warp of the stretcher.  Once the new cord is locked in place the old cord is clamped to the stretcher and the wraps from the new cord locks it in place.

When getting close to the end a short dowel is added to the wrapping shown in the top photo while the bottom one shows the wrapping loosely in place.  The tail end of the wrap has been threaded under the last several rows and shown emerging across the top of the blue and yellow clamp.

Next the dowel gets removed so the loose wraps can be tightened down to hold the tail end in place.  Here it is about half way out.

When the dowel is removed, all the wraps are all tightened and the tail trimmed off this is what the end looks like.

All is not done with the warps as only the front has the stretcher completely wrapped with cord.  The back still needs to be wrapped between the warps.  The photo below shows the seat reversed with the back closest to the camera and the completed front away from the camera.  Those gaps get filled in with wraps next so the front and back match.

The wrapping starts by tucking a length of cord under the previously laid in verticals.  The other end is then run up the outside face adjacent to the leg across the top, down behind the loop on the inside face then under the stretcher and finally back up the outside face to the left of the two original warps.  From there the cord is wrapped around the stretcher filling in the space between the warps with the same number of wraps as used on the front stretcher.  When the space is filled in and you get to the next warp the end of the cord is fed behind the loop and the process continues.  When you run out of cord it’s spliced using the same method as with the front.

This process continues across the back and is finished off using the same dowel method as was done when coming to the end at the front.  Here the wrapping is done and the only thing to do is trimming the tail off and tucking it in behind a wrap. 

To do all the warps and fill between them required about 145’ of cord.  I am a little surprised that there is that much cord in what’s been done.  Working with the cord reminds me of when I was building our house.  Whenever I changed trades like from masonry to carpentry or to electrician I always ended up with a different set of sore muscles and or blisters.  It’s the same with weaving the seat.  Pulling to keep tension on the cord and holding it tightly in place while manipulating the free ends has given my poor fingers a workout.

Next Up – Weaving in the Wefts & Footpads

Danish Cord Seat - #4 Assembly, Finishing & Seat Weave Layout

Assembly and glue-up is next.  Here are all the parts and pieces set up and ready to go along with the clamps that will be used.

This is a little closer view.  I am using a Type III waterproof glue not because I need the joint to be waterproof but because the working time with it is a little longer than the regular glue and I think that I will need every bit of it.  The folded playing cards will be used as my “brush” to spread the glue.  As a preventative aid to make sure all the pieces go in the right places facing the right directions the tenons as well as the mortises are all labeled.  Since the tenons are not centered accidently reversing or flipping one would fit but would make for a real problem.

After a frantic 10 minutes here is the seat all glued together.  Everything came together straight and square with all four legs sitting flat on the bench.

To help lock the tenon in the mortise I used a pneumatic pin nailer to add a one inch long nail from the inside face of the leg through the tenon then continuing on into the far side of the leg.  They are very thin and almost disappear.  I think that when the piece is finished, they will be invisible but then to find them you will have to turn the seat upside down.

Applying the India Ink is next and it’s fairly easy to do.  A piece old cotton t-shirt about 2” square is dipped in the jar then rubbed into the oak making sure the pores get covered.  Here is what it looks like with the stretchers having one coat applied.

After the first pass dried there were a fair number of undyed little specks in the bottom of the pores that needed touching up.   That was done using a small artist’s brush and stippling the surface to get the ink all the way into the bottom of the pores.  When all done this is what it looks like ready for the lacquer to be sprayed on.  One other thing, to keep the legs on the painter’s triangles and not slip off I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the legs for the point to set in.

This is after I had finished the third and last coat of lacquer.  You can see the air-brush in the lower right.  It’s my usual setup with satin lacquer thinned by about a third or so.   The seat frame is set on painter’s triangles to raise the seat up to provide a clean spray at the bottom of the legs.  They are set on a sacrificial piece of carboard set on plywood temporarily covered with paper.  All that is set on a rotating table so I can spin the piece and easily get to all sides.  One note, after the first coat of lacquer was wet sanded with 2,400 grit to remove dust nibs I had to go back and touch up the black in a few places where the oak shown through. 

When getting ready to do the third coat I notice the spray pattern was not right.  Upon inspection some of the tiny holes in the nozzle had become partially clogged distorting the spray pattern.  The solution is easy just soak the nozzle in lacquer thinner and blow them out with compressed air.  I had a small measuring cup used to measure small amounts of denatured alcohol when mixing dye about the right size like the one on the right in the picture below.  I filled it with lacquer thinner dropped the nozzle in put a cover over it to reduce evaporation and went to work on other things.  When I came back about 15 minutes later the thinner had dissolved the cup and the thinner had run out all over the piece of cardboard.  What remained of that cup is shown to the left of the other one.  Needless to say, I was a little surprised.  After cleaning up the mess the nozzle was soaked in thinner in a glass jar this time.  Once cleaned out the air brush worked great and the third coat of finish applied.

With the seat frame completed I can start on weaving the seat.  That begins with  laying out the location of the warps.  Warps are the framework of the seat and are put on first here running from front to back analogous to the sides of a loom.  Once they are all on the weaving of the wefts can begin.  An odd number of warps are laid out on the front and back stretchers.  I used a digital caliper’s points to mark the spacing followed by a marking knife and square to get scribed lines.  In the photo below the faint right two lines have been cut in with the marking knife while the two pronounced ones on the left have had some chalk rubbed in to make them easy to see.

The Danish cord I am using is made outside of Copenhagen and is the same 3 ply cord found on Scandinavian chairs made from the 1950's on.  The individual plies of the laced cord are twisted to give a rope like finish.  It is also available in a smooth finish but I like the way the twisted cord looks. This is a 2-pound bundle.  It does not show up in the photo but to keep the ends from fraying I dabbed some glue on them.  When cutting off usable lengths I will do the same on the newly cut ends.

Next Up – Mounting the Warps

Danish Cord Seat - #3 Cutting Tenons & Routing

With all the mortises made it’s time to work on cutting the tenons that go in them.  The first pieces will be the front and back stretchers shown in the photo below.

Since the pieces were a little long, they are cut to length in the chop saw using a stop block.  That’s followed by laying out the tenon.  Because this tenon is not centered side to side along with the regular layout marks I have added the depth of cut for each face.  Below the top piece has had the first face cut making two passes using the stacked dado. 

My stacked dado set has two 1/8” outer blades, four 1/8” chippers, one 3/32” chipper one 1/16” chipper and 10 shims ranging from .004” to .02” thick.  Using them in combination I can cut dados ranging in width from ¼” on up.  This setup uses two 1/8” outer blades and two 1/8” chippers which gives a ½” total cut width per pass.  I could have added more chippers to get to the exact width but then I would have had to add a sacrificial piece to the rip fence so I wouldn’t cut the fence itself.  It’s just easier to stack pieces up a bit over half the total and make two passes.  Additionally, a narrower cut puts less strain on the saw and decreases the total rotating mass which reduces the time it takes the blade stack to spin down and stop.  Here is what the selected parts look like.

For this tenon the second and third cuts will both be ¼” deep so the dado set will be raised and the cuts made.  With these cuts the three sides of the tenon will be done with just the thickness to do.  The last cut establishes the thickness of the tenon which is the most critical and that’s because it needs to be a snug fit.  Too tight and it could cause the leg to split, too loose and the glue joint will be weak.  The height of the tenon is not as critical so it gets cut first allowing me to test the width to get it just right.  Here is what the finished tenon looks like.

Cutting the double front to back stretchers is next. 

The layout follows the same process as before with one addition.  The top and bottom stretchers are the same size but have a different orientation.  By that I mean the top stretcher is wider than tall and the bottom stretcher is taller than it is wide.  Because they are both 7/8” by 1” it makes it really, really easy to get them mixed up and make an incorrect cut.  To help keep that from happening a 1 through 4 numbered cut sequence is added.   I also have a couple of cutoffs for test pieces.  The actual cutting follows the same procedure as the front/back stretchers.  I just need to be extra careful making the cuts.

Here is what the two sets of stretchers look like when done set in the orientation they will be installed.

Now with all the tenons cut I can do a test fit.  In doing so I found that about half of them were just a hair too tight.  That’s solved by taking a couple of passes on the tenon face using a piece of 120 grit sandpaper attached to a flat surface.  Here is what the friction fit assembled seat looks like.

Routing a radius on all but one of the exposed edges is next.  There are two and maybe three different sized radius router bits to be used.  First is a 1/8” shown below being used at the bottom of the legs.  The piece of plywood behind the leg with the handle is a backer board whose purpose is twofold.  First, is to keep the leg square with the fence and second to act as a backup to reduce chipping when the bit exits the end grain cut.  This bit also gets used on one edge of the legs and the tops of the six horizontal stretchers.  Because it is so small the radius can be cut in a single pass.

Next is a 3/8” radius for the top of the leg and most of its remaining edges plus the bottom edges of the stretchers.  The setup is similar to the previous 1/8” bit except that instead of being cut in a single pass I will make three passes.  That’s done to reduce the load on the router and reduce chipout.  While going from a 1/8” bit to a 3/8” bit doesn’t sound like all that much.  However, when you do the math the total cross-sectional area removed is 9 times as much.  Here is what that looks like ready to make the last pass on the edge of the legs.

With all the routing done the flat faces and most of the edge routing can be sanded using a ¼ sheet pad sander.  However, there is still some hand work to do on the top and bottom of the legs.  Here is a before and after of the top of the leg corner blending where all of the edges were routed with the 3/8” bit.

The other two top leg corners are a little different in that one vertical edge has a 1/8” roundover and the one facing the camera has a hard 90-degree edge.  The top photo is before the blending and the bottom one after.

The bottom of the legs also need help in blending all the routed edged together.  The left leg is the before and the right is the after.

Most of the blending is done with the fine end (right) of this half-round 4-in-Hand rasp.  The final blending is done by hand using 220 grit sandpaper until it flows and feels smooth with no hard edges.

The stretchers are treated a little different in that they are not sanded at all.  The flat faces are left with the 80-grit surface right out of the thickness sander plus the routed radiuses are not sanded either.  The reason for this is when the seat cording is wrapped around them it needs the wood surface to have some tooth to in order grab onto.  With that in mind here is an end view of the stretchers.

Next Up – Assembly & Finishing & Seat Weave Layout

Danish Cord Seat - #2 Shaping & Mortising the Legs

First parts to be made are the legs.  I started on them because they have quite a few mortises and it is my procedure to make the mortises first then fit the tenons that go in them second.  I do it in that order because the mortises are made on the mortising machine which uses a fixed width chisel/bit combination.  The tenons on the other hand are cut on the table saw making their finished size adjustable.  Anyway, it all begins by printing out a full-size pattern of the upper part of the leg and gluing it to a piece of ¼” plywood.  That’s shown below along with the leg blank.

The straight part of the pattern is cut on the table saw while the curved part is cut with the jig saw using a ground fine tooth blade.  The table saw cut is right at the finished width while the jig sawn part is cut slightly wide of the line to allow for a smooth curve and transition into the straight part.  Here the straight cut is done and a little bit of the curved cut has been made with the jig saw.

Next using the oscillating drum sander, the jig sawn cut is smoothed and blended into the straight table saw cut.  I start with a coarse sanding sleeve then use a fine grit sleeve.  That’s followed by some hand sanding to completely blend things together.

Layout of the curve on the legs along with all the mortises is next.  The legs are not all the same, there are mirrored pairs.  Here you can see how the they will be arranged.  Note the labels, LF for Left Front, RF for Right Front and so on as to which one goes where.

Cutting the straight part of the legs comes next and that’s done on the table saw with a stop to keep me from cutting too far along the line and getting into the curved area.  While it looks like the cut could be continued that’s deceiving since the bottom of the blade cuts farther than the exposed part.  The blue tape is there to give me a good place to grab when pulling the leg back out.

After the straight cut it’s over to the bandsaw to rough out the curve.

Fairing the bandsawn curved edge and the table saw cut straight section together is next.  That’s done using the same process as when the template was made.  The top photo has the finished blended edge completed on top with the bottom showing what it looks like right off the bandsaw.  The bottom photo is a closer look.

Cutting the mortises in the leg is next.  I use a dedicated mortise machine to make them.  It uses mortising bits comprised of a square hollow chisel that squares the edges and a special drill bit that leads the hollow chisel cut and removes wood shavings all mounted in a powered head.  A long handle gives the mechanical advantage for plunging the cut.  In use the piece to have the mortise drilled is clamped to a table that moves front to back and side to side.  The side to side movement can be limited with stops for making identical repeating cuts.  Depth of cut is controlled with a stop on the head.  When my son was young, I bet him that I could drill square holes.  He didn’t believe me and thought it was impossible.  When I took him into the shop and made a couple the look on his face was priceless.

Here is what the setup looks like with the ends done.  They are cut first so there is even lateral pressure on all sides of the bit.  If one side is open the bit could drift throwing the mortise out of square.

This is what the finished mortise looks like.

Since the legs are mirrored pairs two different setups are required.  This is what the second setup looks like.  All the measurements and process are the same just reversed. 

For the next set of mortises the layout starts on a test piece using a dial caliper and marking knife.  Because a knife mark is hard for me to clearly see on light wood like oak chalk is rubbed into the cuts making them readily visible.  In the bottom photo the right mortise is easy to see while the one on the left is not so visible.

To make sure the chisel is aligned with the layout lines the end of a small steel square is set against the chisel/bit set and the table moved in or out until they are aligned.  The side to side adjustment follows the same process except that when aligned at the ends the stops are locked in place.  Once set up you can easily make two or fifty identical pieces.

Once a test piece is cut and all the measurements check out there is one last step before cutting the second set of mortises.  A filler plug is needed where two of the mortises will intersect.   The plug is made out of scrap oak sized so it fits snugly in the mortise.  The reason the plug is needed is to prevent a blowout in the first mortise when the second one is cut and punches through the side of the first one.  The top drawing shows the intersection highlighted in red and the bottom photo shows the filler plug in place. 

With the plug is in place the remaining mortises can be cut being sure to remember to make mirrored pairs.  After these mortises are cut the plugs can be removed and discarded.  Here are what the four legs look like with all the mortises cut.

Next Up – Cutting Tenons & Routing