Danish cord rails NO nails

 I did this pair of  Slat backs for my Aunt she wanted something different this is what I did. My Father-in-law has a set similar but the chairs are brown and the cord has a coat of Danish oil on it.

 My Father-in-laws chairs came from the factory like this. So I did this way for my Aunt.

Danish Cord without nails. As you can see there are no knots I unrolled the cord and using an old rope slicing technique my dad taught me http://www.machovec.com/rope/splicing/3strand_end2end_short.htm this site  explains it. I used my awl to open space to get the cut ends into the unrolled part of the rope. If you look closely you can find the splices as they are thicker then the rest of the cord. I do this with my Sea Grass seats also that way I can do the top and bottoms with NO KNOTS :-)

Rocker with 3/8 flatoval reed seat

 After the finish on the rocker dried I clamped two 1" x 3/4" boards to the front and back rails. This is done so that when you get to the end of your weaving it isn't so tight that you have a hard time getting your last rows in. As you weave you take them out one at a time so the weaving gets easier the last few rows are tight.

 I use masking tape to hold my reed to the back rail some people would use two at a time it is easier for me to use one at a time. (I should have taken a picture of this next step but wasn't thinking ahead). I run my wrap down one side rail and fill in the other side rail with a separate piece of reed which I tied in with the first two wraps from the other side. I use staples to slice in while I wrap you should over lap the ends about 6" and use at least three staples run the staples with the grain (anther thing I should have taken pictures of).

 This is how I splice in when weaving. I finish weaving with one piece then weave back to it with my new piece so the ends will over lap then side the new piece over the end of the last piece. I splice on the bottom most of the time because it is harder to splice on top and hide it neatly.

 This is the top of the finished woven seat.

 Here is the bottom it is a little more time consuming to weave the bottom like the top but that's the way I do it. Some people would do a 4x4, 5x5 or a 6x6 herringbone on the bottom that would be just fine. Some even do a checker board pattern. But you should do some type of weave one the bottom to keep the weave on top tight. Because as the chair gets used the reed will stretch and loosen up the weave.

Here is the reed with Cabot's natural Fiddlehead oil wood stain on it. In the can it looked forest green, but the stain is more of a wash then a paint so on the reed it dried a nice light green. I put a urethane finish on the seat to protect peoples clothes.