Pressed cane seat oddity?

[KAT]

Just acquired a couple of new boats and the Tremblay has not original seats which are pressed cane. One is torn along the front which I am aware I can repair, but what I find odd is the way the cane has been secured to the frames. Is this correct or is it going to be difficult to remove and repair these?

It appears the dowels have been sunk into the corners and strips of wood glued down over the spline.

 

[pklonowski]

I've never seen pressed cane like that, but the one I tried to "restore" involved removing all the glued-in cane and spline from the frame. Much less than halfway through, I decided my time was worth more than the cost of a new pressed cane seat. I'd much rather build a new frame and hand-cane it, as well.

That's just me, though.

 

[KAT]

Thanks Paul

The seats are not original equipment so I don't need to keep them if I choose otherwise. It will be spring before it gets done so I have plenty of time to decide what to do with them although the rawhide laced seats Tremblays came with won't be considered. If need be I can make new seats for less than the cost of buying them.

 

[Greg Nolan]

Machine-woven cane comes with weaves of different sizes -- the weave on your seats appears to be smaller than usual, and a larger weave should be available.

I have seen dowels or round pegs used in the corners of hand-woven caned seats -- to hold the binder cane in place. This is the first time I have seen them used with machine cane -- they seem merely cosmetic, because they could not be holding down the ends of the splines. The splines on these seats appear to be a bit wider than usual (but it might just be the way they look in the photos) -- if so, you may have trouble getting replacement splines.

Removing the old splines is easier if you have a chisel that is the same width as the grove into which the old spline is pressed. Carefully chop out an inch or so of one end of the spline, and you may be able then to get the chisel under the spline and gently pry it out. A little hot water might help by softening the old glue -- but it might make things worse, by swelling the spline.