Danish Modern Chair Joinery - Møller Style Joints

I got a little nudge to follow up on something I promised to talk more about which is how to do those joints in Danish furniture where the rails meet at the same height on a post of a chair leg.

From the first time I made these chair joints until now I have made them the same each time in designs that require this type of joint. I have not had one fail yet. Honestly I had wondered for a long time just how the factory made there joinery. Turns out it is the same. I discovered some photos of an antique one that was for sale and the joint had come apart and there was my answer. I don't think it takes a real genius to figure this out but it is nice to have confirmation when you see a factory example of it to confirm you aren't making substandard joinery.

So I will let the pictures speak for themselves especially since I am heading out of town for the weekend and my time is a bit crunched.

By the way I do cut the mortise on the slot mortiser. You could use a router as a substitute but couldn't make any recommendations on how to use one of those things.

Here is an example of an assembled joint from a Møller style bench. You can see the typical thicker portion of the post at the joint height. This helps add more meat to the joint and a shoulder surface for support of racking forces.

Below is how the joint intersects in the middle of the post. The mortises make an X if you viewed a cross section of the post. I place the rail that is shown vertically as the front to back rail and the horizontal as the left to right rail. This way the front and back rails "pin" the side rails in the mortise. I think of it as a sort of back up if the glue joints weaken. There is plenty of glue surface in these joints as well. Surprisingly strong.

Some additional views below.

Above is the joint before shaping. I carve off the corners and then finely rasp the surface to match the shape and thickness of a piece of cord.

I have found no faster way to round down the tenons to match a slotted mortise than a no.6 grain rasp. On that note I prefer round as opposed to square mortises here because I think the joint is less likely to split out when stresses are applied to the joint.

For reference the tenon is 3/8" thick by 1-7/8" high (I think?) and the post are 1-1/2" square at the joint. 

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Weaving Hans Wegner's CH25 - Photo Series

So here it is. I know that this is an often searched for and requested topic when it comes to weaving Danish furniture. I have seen the forum topics myself from several years back while trying to acquire the details on the subject. As with many of these things I decided maybe I just need to be the one to figure it out and share it.

So, here are a lot of photos showing the basic bones of the process. This is not a "how to" or a "step by step" but it will get you the basis if you examine the what and where and what order I am on, etc. I would like to give a more thorough explanation but due to time this will have to be it for now. Hope it helps some.

Oh and thanks to my wife for coming down and shooting some photos, otherwise I wouldn't have the seat weaving part. I shot the back portion, thus no me in the pictures.

Weave the front and rear rails as you would a Danish cord pattern of this sort. I hate saying that because there is no proper instruction on how to do this correctly out there. There is a way to wrap the rails while working from the roll rather than taking a bundle and going around and around the rail but I have never seen anyone explain it. I will at some point but for now wrap the front and rear rails and string the cord from front to back as you know how. Then work the weave left to right.

Work the cord over and under and pull through. By the way I have seen instruction that say the initial front to back weave is to be left loose. WRONG. It must be pulled tight. Not tight like a guitar string but definitely not intentionally left loose. The left to right weave is left just loose enough to make a nice up and down wave pattern through the initial front to back cord. If the left to right pattern it is pulled too tightly then it will not pack in neatly.

The return weave is wrapped around a steel bar that runs from front to back. Notice the steel wire that goes between the bars to keep them from bowing and keeps the tension balanced across the seat weave. This is critical that you don't use cord nails here instead. They will cause the outer rails to twist and eventually, very likely, split out somewhere or at least compromise the structural integrity.

Another bottom view for clarity.

There are slots in the rails for cord to go around where joinery would interfere with the cord. This is a block glued on to create space for the cord to go around the arm joint. Notice the cord areas are recessed so that the cord ends up just proud of the surrounding wood surfaces.

Start by weaving the vertical portion. This is the part that is a secrete and I can't reveal. Just kidding! The bottom rail of the back is wrapped first while leaving spaces for the vertical cord to fall in when the top is being wrapped. The top rail is then wrapped with a single cord and then drops down to form the vertical lengths at the appropriate spacing. The hole in the top of the rail allows you to form a wide band of cord on the back of the seat while maintaining the pattern on the front. Why you ask? Ok, lots of speculation on this but the answer is simple. You need a place to hide your knots when doing the left to right weave.

Here are some photos of everything all done up. 

Now all you need to do is install the arms and legs without getting glue on any of that cord. Yikes! Don't fret just use some blue painters tape around that area. Oh and make sure and do the finish before the weave, of course.

Now I have on the chopping block a set of four "Round" chairs (aka "The Chair") to do. Can't wait to get to them!

Making the CH25 - Designed by Hans Wegner

Sometimes I feel like I am resurrecting the dead or at least recreating Jurassic Park. The paleontology of furniture. Digging up bones (pictures). Sifting through the dirt and debris (more photos- hopefully closeups or bottoms side shots).

When you are hoping to make a piece that you have never seen and not too many people have either and to top it off any technical information on them is no doubt buried in some website only in Danish is challenging, to say the least. I fortunately have gained the knack for obtaining at least one or two dimensions and working from pictures after that to the final dimensions of the entire piece with success.

Critical in making this project come together was determining the exact diameter of Danish cord. If you saw my ruler for weaving danish cord post then you know why this was so problematic. Once I figured this part out I had to find photos that showed exactly the number of cords on each portion of the chair. This took me about a year looking at photos that would pop up online. Thanks to an online auction, I stumbled upon some good close ups where I could count each cord. Put that info together with the dimensions and that finally completed the missing details I had been looking for.

Fortunately, Wegner was a craftsman, so his designs follow a logic that a woodworker can see at its core. You can see an underlying structure that is logical in the wood choice. How he utilized standardized lumber dimensions to derive the different parts for proportion and joinery. It is amazing the efficiency of the lay out of parts for production. I have learned after making several of his designs that there is practically no room for improvement. That is why you see so many "modern" chair designs that have his chairs at the core. Though, in truth, Wegner took many of his designs from chairs of antiquity. How about his wish bone chair that is essentially derived from a Quan Yi ceremonial chair (Chinese). I digress...

I know everyone wants to know. How to weave that back? What is that hole in the top of the rail for? Do you use cord nails in the back? No. I can answer that for you. The rest will have to wait for another post. And, YES, this chair is really "that" comfortable. Oh and finally, NO, you have absolutely no need for an ottoman.

What is the Diameter of Danish Paper Cord?

Wow, what a question. I have been asking that for a long time. What is its actual diameter. I think I may have figured it out finally.

The root of the problem of nailing down the exact diameter probably lies in the fact that it was originally an industrial product made to bind things. Anything and everything. It wasn't meant to meet a particular exacting standard (as far as I know of). This product just so happened to make its way into Danish modern chair production because of a number of reasons.

Despite this, as far as I have experienced, there is an amazing consistency in size from roll to roll and from different suppliers, though I now primarily source it from one company in the US.

I used to use a rough figure of 7 cord widths per inch. This works for anything less than 3" but anymore than that and it becomes clear a more accurate measurement is needed. Here is where it gets ugly. There is no easy measurement that fits. It doesn't even make a clean round number in metric.

It is somewhere between 1/8" and  9/64". Or somewhere between 3.5mm and 3.6mm. I have landed on the figure of 0.13875" or 3.52425mm. It is close to 31/32" for 7 cords which works ok for figuring the nail locations on a 5/2 cord layout.

Since this figure is awkward to work with in the shop for laying out cord and nail locations I made a ruler for simplifying the process and of course want to share it with all of you.

Don't be confused by all the little blocks. There are instructions on how to make a ruler with the print out. It is designed so that you can create a two sided rule and be able to pair it with the different standard ratios of cord layout used on most danish modern chairs. 

It is sized for printing on standard 8.5 x 11 paper. The rule is 10" long and can be made longer by butting pieces end to end. I suggest using some clear plastic tape to laminate it with to create a simple flexible rule. Choose from several different measuring ratios, such as, 5/2, 4/2, 2/2, and a basic 1/1. I paired most of these with the option to have a 1" scale on the reverse side.

Hope this makes your shop life a little easier. BTW I decided to make this after weaving a CH25 pair that I recently made. I will post some photos on that since I know many have questions on how it is done.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DOWNLOAD PAGE. (Click on the download button in the upper right corner of the new page to begin download.) NOTE: THE DOCUMENT IN THE LINK DISPLAYS INCORRECTLY BUT THE DOWNLOADED IS JUST FINE. 

NOTE: The plans are in PDF format. If you don't have a PDF reader Adobe Acrobat is a free software that will make it viewable and printable. Make sure where ever you print it that the "scale" is set to 100% or the measurements won't be accurate on the print. You may need to unselect "fit to page" when printing.

If I made any errors anywhere in the plans please let me know so I can update them.

How to Weave A Danish Paper Cord Seat - Series

So I have been wanting to post a series on how to weave a Hans Wegner style Danish paper cord seat for a few years. I finally have gotten around to it. I just finished up a set of 6 chairs that are the CH36/37 in mahogany and they really are the perfect chair to demonstrate with.

Here are the videos starting with part 1 through to part 6 totaling about 38 minutes. I tried to edit out all the none essentials but I left comments on parts that will not only get you through the weave but some very helpful pointers that I could have used when I began. I suggest watching it completely through before starting. Once you have completed a chair, if you watch it again, you will likely understand and appreciate the additional comments better.

Please leave your comments. If I have left anything out or something seems to not make sense, please let me know. I spent a bit of time editing these so I would like them to be useful.

By the way, if you click on the "Danish paper cord" tag to the right of this page then you will see some posts on the basic weaving kit that I use. I don't cover this in the video to keep it concise.

Enjoy!

Click here to go to my YouTube channel with all 6 videos.