caned seats

[Craig Johnson]

Can any one tell me what the cane pattern would have been on a 1910 OT CR seat? Corner holes or not? Did the use the more simplified pattern used on sone Canadian canoes? photos would help if anyone has an original. Yes I already have the CD of OT catalogs but can't seem to lay my hands on it when I need it. Thanks.
Craig

 

[Benson Gray]

This is one of those questions that will probably never have a definitive answer because there is bound to have been some variation. Your Old Town CD will show an image like the one below from page 20 of the 1910 catalog with no corner holes. The messages at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?61 and http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?891 have more information on this topic.

Benson

 

[Paul Miller]

Here is one in a 1911 OT.

Paul

 

[Craig Johnson]

Thanks Paul and Benson, both photos show the same pattern and lack of a corner hole. Glad I didn't get conflicting answers.
Craig

 

[Fitz]

Conflict

What is life without conflict anyway??

It is hard to say, but both Benson's and Paul's photos seem to show "canoe weave" pattern. Here is a photo of the seat from my 1914 Ideal, "AA" Grade Charles River. It was typical 7 step caning pattern.

 

[Craig Johnson]

Thanks Fitz.
I knew if I waited long enough I'd get conflicting answers. Thats why I jumped on the first two so quickly. I'm going with the catalog photo. At least yours didn't have corner holes.
Craig

 

[Greg Nolan]

Benson might have some good information on this; my thoughts here are just speculation -- prior to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, much work in many industries was done on a 'piece work" basis. Weaving canoe seats is the sort of task that would lend itself to being paid on a piece work basis.

Much "piece work" ended after 1938 because the average wages paid by piece work had to equal at least the minimum wage -- a new notion at the time. And piece work done at home by housewives, a practice used by many industries where the materials were supplied by the company to the home worker, was almost completely ended by the 1938 statute, because home piece work was often done sporadically, and it was not possible to correlate wages, hours worked, and pieces made. I don't know if Old Town or any other canoe companies had seats woven by women at home, but it is the sort of task that would lend itself to home work. And I expect that machine-woven cane came into use some time after 1938 because it would better lend itself to a non-piece-work factory setting than would hand-weaving.

In any event, it would not surprise me if the "canoe weave," and other weaving patterns which are simpler than the standard 7 step weave, were used, or even developed, by piece-workers who had a strong incentive to weave in a way that led to higher output per day.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Adding to Greg's offering, I've wondered if perhaps some of those who did the caning work simply preferred one pattern over another... or even (as he said) created a pattern, but did it as their way of putting a personal stamp on a factory item-- like the fellow who attached the Morris serial number plates in the opposite orientation.

 

[thirsty]

1909 OT CR Double Gunnel

 

[Benson Gray]

I don't know if Old Town or any other canoe companies had seats woven by women at home

Yes, Old Town seats prior to 1938 were woven at home on frames that were supplied by the factory as you have described. I've heard that the minimum wage law is what caused the factory to convert to the machine-woven cane seats. The unintended consequence being that a law which was supposed to increase the wages of employees in the United States actually lowered them for some canoe builders and diverted the funds out of the country in this case. Further research indicates that it was the 1949 amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act which contained the specifics related to piecework. See section 776.5 at http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=29:3.1.1.2.38&idno=29 for more details. This means that the actual conversion date at Old Town may have been 1949 or slightly later depending on how many hand caned seats were in inventory at that time. The exact timing of the conversion may be further confused by the use of wooden slat seats during the Second World War when cane was not available. I agree that the weaving patterns may have varied due on the obvious piecework incentives to complete the hand caned seats faster.

Benson

 

[Treewater]

Corner holes? Seat pattern?

My 1937 OT HW is coming right along. Time to start thinking of seat caning. This thread mentions corner holes on some OT. Are these them? If so, the holes are smaller than the others. As well, those odd holes are what I would call corner holes since there are four in a rectangle and appear to be yet another seat repair. From the post, I gather these seats were done on a piece meal basis by someone outside the company. But to what pattern? Did the seat caning person put extra holes?

 

[Rob Stevens]

I speculate that those smaller corner holes would be for squaring the finishing binder cane. The previous photos showed boundary binder cane bent/curved at the corners.

 

[Greg Nolan]

Because of their smaller size, and because there are two of them, I would guess that the corner holes in your seats were added by someone recaning the seats.

The seats on my 1931 OT 50-pounder needed recaning when I got it. It did not have corner holes, so the binder cane -- one piece -- ends up being angled at each corner, and it is a bit difficult to get it to lie flat.



The seats on my Morris, by comparison, came with corner holes (and plastic cane that I replaced after repairing the seat frame).



The new binder cane cane was installed in four pieces (after Sam approved the reweaving), and there is no problem with it curling up going around an angled corner.

I think Rob’s speculation is correct, that the small holes were drilled to allow square corners for the binder cane. I’m going to guess further that the double holes on your seat are the result of a mistake -- I bet that the first holes were the inside holes, and were found to be unsatisfactory as a way of dealing with getting binder cane around the corner, so another set, the outer holes, was drilled in order to allow a 90 degree corner and the use of a four-piece binding. But that is sheer speculation on my part.