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