Help! I need advise on my Danish papercord weave.
Hello everyone,
I am currently working on a smoked oak bench with a danish papercord weaved seat. And I am having some difficulties. I am making the horizontal lining in my weave, one of the last staps of weaving the seat. And I can’t get it to close lines. The cord seems to be quite tense. Normally you’ll be able to shove the cords towards eachother and close the gaps inbetween. I was making the first couple of rows and there is a lot of tension in the pattern, making it impossible for now to close. I’ve stopped my work for now, but does anyone know the reason it doesn’t seem to close properly? Does it get easier to move the cord if you get halfway the bench? Or did I messed it up?
The vertical double rows are tight, but not to tight. I have fitted a piece of wood between the stretchers to keep them in place, so they don’t get bended by the force of the papercord. The interval in my pattern is two vertical double rows, three rows around the stretcher etc. etc. Is there a change this is to tight?
Anyways, If anyone recognizes the problem, it will help me enormously!
All of you, thank you for your time!
Max
Replies
I can’t talk from direct experience weaving the paper string but for having worked in a fine furniture factory where we weaved hundreds of those per month I can tell you that it took more than a few tries to get an experienced weaver that produced quality seats. Now for the problem bringing the lines to the edge and closer together it will only get worst as you add some strings so I would stop there and see what an experienced weaver thinks.
This article mentions that the weaver going from side to side should not be too tight so the strings won’t close (as you are experiencing) but just tight enough so they close. https://www.finewoodworking.com/project-guides/chairs-benches-and-stools/how-to-weave-a-seat-with-danish-cord
Thank you for your advise! It helped me solve my problem and the end result is exactly what I wanted!
I suspect that what you refer to as the "vertical double rows" are too taunt. I have not done this type of weaving before but I have done similar things and is deceiving how much slack the cross cords will consume.
I know this is not what you want to hear since it means starting over but I suspect that may be needed.
I might suggest making a test frame using the same dimensions for the depth of the seat but much narrower. The thought being try some test runs to determine the proper tension for the vertical runs with short horizontal runs that can be done much quicker. Once you know just how loose to make the vertical runs you can then attempt to duplicate that on the actual seat.
I don’t think it requires removing the first strings, as you can see in the second picture at the bottom, the crossing rows are together although a bit too loose. I think the front to back rows need to be tight and the perpendicular rows just tight enough to weave through and be close together.
Actually that is pretty obvious when you look at the first picture in the Fine Woodworking article.
Never done the papercord but I've done a bunch of caning. I would think that the principles are similar. Yep, too tight on the first round I'd think. With papercord can you dampen it? You can with cane and it gives you a bit of slack when wet. I set a couple of dowels across the seat frame on my first round and weave over that and that gives me a fairly loose weave. Each successive round creates more tension and if it's too tight ,besides making it really difficult to do can actually blow up the whole seat frame! Backing up and starting over is sometimes the only thing you can do. I find the whole thing really boring and tedious. Over under,over under then under over ,under over. Bored to death halfway through one chair and maybe there's 3 or 5 more!
Hello everyone,
The problem is solved! The first rounds of the weaver going side to side were indeed too tight! I loosend the weave a little, and now it closes perfectly.
Everyone thank you so much for replying. Your advice helped me a lot.
Great news, and thanks for letting us know. It looks fantastic.
I've never done that type, but have done Shaker woven seats. Those can also be too tight. I think our brains always tell us tighter is better, but it seems that on any woven seat it's not true.
Wow - looks great. Would love to see the finished article.
I am going to photograph the finished project next week. I will upload the results!
The results of the danish weave! Thanks to everyone for answering. It helped me a lot!
Sweet!
That's a beauty!
Very nice.
Yup, your weave rows started too tight. I was weaving this headboard at the same time and tackled the same challenge. I also think my wrap rows were tighter than they needed to be. My weaves were long, which made it hard to maintain consistent tension. I had too much tension in the center and sometimes too loose at the rails. Needle nose pliers helped pull the loose toward the tight and evened it out.
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