Blackwood Chair Restoration (Cane seats & Finishing)

[TrevorMcc]

Hi I am new to these forums so bear with me while I learn.

I have 4 Dining room chairs 2 Need Seats replaced as well as finishing.

2 Others with Arms 1. Has seat cut out by previous restoration then was upholstered(was ugly) so meed new seat as well as Finishing.
The other is only in need of finishing.

I will post Photos.

Any suggestions

[rustynail]

How about shallow rebating out as far as the cane slot and fitting a drop-in upholstered seat.

[Thumbthumper]

Hi Trevor ...

I take it that the 2 chairs with arms are fine apart from the finishing?

For the other 2, there are many ways to fix the seats.

You could cane them. This would involve rebuilding the seat frame of the chopped out one. The are plenty of cane suppliers and tutorials available.
I'm caning a seat at the moment. Thread is here (http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=182737).

You could take rustynails advice, but it would still require making another seat frame.

You could make some solid seats. This would be relatively straight forward with some new Blackwood (probably jointed). I'm not sure how the seats are attached as I can't tell from the photos, but they may just be screwed on.

For the finishing, what I would do, is rub on a mix of shellac and BLO after a couple of coats of neat shellac.
You could use some other sort of varnish or oil finish, but my expertise is with shellac. You'd be best to ask in the finishing forum for these.

Feel free to ask questions once you decide which direction to head in.

Cheers,
Stu