Special end-of-year blockbuster before & after issue! Happy holidays, everyone!
These CH23 chairs by Danish designer Hans Wegner are some of the earliest made. They were brought over from Denmark and have been in the owner’s family since the early 50s.
There were four in all. As you can see, they needed a little work.
Not only were the paper cord seats shot, but the teak and oak frames were dark and dull with a lot of old stains.
This photo shows the dullness better than any other. (Somehow they ended up looking brighter in photos, I guess due to tricks of lighting.)
This is not the same chair as in the photo above, but they were all in the same shape.
Read on for how I got them to look like this.
These black drips probably didn’t start that way. They were probably some innocuous liquid that didn’t show so it didn’t get cleaned off, but after a few decades it gradually darkened the wood. My best guess, anyway.
I gently cleaned the wood with full strength Murphy’s Oil Soap, which pretty much acts as a stripper so it shouldn’t be used unless absolutely necessary. I wipe it on and wipe it off with very light buffing with #0000 super fine steel wool as needed. The soap is rinsed off completely with water, immediately after which the wood is dried thoroughly with towels. This does not raise the grain on teak, and it also didn’t have any effect on the grain of the oak in these chairs. It does leave it looking dry, though—that’s what you see on the right.
The left side has already had an application of tung oil varnish, which I used on these to give them the luster of 60-year-old patina.
This isn’t a good photo but at least you can see that the black stains are completely gone.
Another example of black stains—still a faint trace of them in the second photo but this was on the inside of the back rung of the chair so I left it.
More dullness and spots.
The cleaning and tung oil treatment reveals the beauty of the wood without removing the character that is acquired over decades of use.
The first chair is completely done and one chair has not yet been started. The seats look really different but in this photo the frames look pretty similar.
It would be nice if there was a way to give new paper cord the look of old, but I don’t know of any way to do that. Age will impart the darker color and use will build patina.
The inside of the front rail is just as pretty as the seat weaving.
Also, see that knot in the rung? These chairs had quite a few little flaws in the wood like that. I haven’t seen many newer CH23s, so I know know if they use a better grade of wood nowadays. I wonder if they used lesser quality wood in the early days before Wegner was well-known.
Just another pretty picture.
Ta-da!
It was an honor and a pleasure to work on these chairs.
Wonderful, so wonderful. Your post reminded us of our mother, who used to do a spot of dress-making in her free time and would ‘age’ white lace by soaking it in a pan of tea. However we’re not sure how well this method, which worked a treat on lace, would work on the paper-based cord!
Tea would give it a nice aged color but unfortunately the paper cord is very absorbent and it swells up when wet and doesn’t ever shrink back to the original diameter! (I did do some experimenting once.)
It may be possible to use alcohol to thin concentrated tea. I assume that alcohol won’t swell the material.
Hmm, that’s worth trying on a sample.
I did try spray shellac once. It was recommended in a book. It made horrible blotches that I could not even out. I had to reweave the entire seat. Moral: test on samples!
Thank you SO much for your posts on the CH23 chair! I recently picked up 2 at a garage sale for 5 bucks a pop. I assumed they were replicas (couldn’t see the name due to a horrible padded rushing job). Once I got down to the naked frames I was stoked. I am so excited to try to weave them. I restore, but this is definitely a challenge. Thank you so much for your detailed posts, this is the most helpful information I have found. If you have a preference of cord distributor and can share…I would love to know. Thanks again for your time.
I get cord from Frank’s Cane & Rush in CA—good prices, good service. You should also get a copy of The Caner’s Handbook, by by Bruce W. Miller and Jim Widess (available on Amazon). It has very clear directions for weaving this chair seat. Good luck! Oh, and be sure to do all cleaning and oiling of the frames before you start weaving. But that’s probably obvious.
Thanks for the recommendations, much appreciated!
Hi, I have committed to reweaving the seats of my six CH 23s, but I do not want to re-glue them. Do you do re-gluing? How is it done. I have a local antique restorer who is willing to do it, but I wanted to know if there are any tricks involved.
Thanks,
Kristin
Kristin, I’m sorry but I don’t do any frame repairs. I’m not sure what you mean by tricks–the old glue has to be removed and new glue applied, then the chair has to be clamped somehow until the glue sets up. A lot depends on how loose the joints are and which joints are loose. A good repair person can advise you after examining the chairs. Good luck!
These are lovely and your restoration work was superb!
Thanks for these fantastic posts. I have recently started to renovate some Danish pieces myself, with varying degrees of success. My last project was a fantastic Wegner sofa table, solid teak top with oak legs. A giant piece 1.5 meters long. I started by removing old wax with Rustins wax and varnish remover (not sure this was a good idea), left it for 24 hours and then applied a thin coat of teak oil, the oil turned to glue after a few hours! Waited another 24 hours and teak oil was still like glue so used mentholated spirits to remove everything. Then went over with super fine wire wool 0000, this seemed to get back to a clean wood finish. Decided not to try teak oil again and instead added a thin coat of Briwax clear wax, this produced a clean looking finish but did leave a few light areas where the teak had lost some of its colour but otherwise looked fantastic. I am sure I should have not used these harsh chemicals. My next project is a set of Moller chairs. I will remove the old woven paper chord seats and then clean the chairs with water and a clean cloth, dry quickly and then try some teak oil again! If all goes well I will then have a go at weaving the cord seats on these 6 chairs. Wish me luck.
Gary,
The Rustins (which sounds like what is called stripper in the US) may have been too harsh, but it also sounds like you left the teak oil on the wood too long. You can put a generous amount on but only let it soak in for five minutes or so, then wipe it off. You might need to wipe it down again after 20 minutes or so. The wood should just have a nice glow, not an oily sheen at all. If it does gum up a bit, simply go over it again with #0000 wool and teak oil and then wipe it down well.
I’m not a fan of wax finishes as dirt tends to stick to wax more than it does to an oil finish but a lot of people like wax. If it were my table, I’d be inclined to remove the wax entirely with turpentine and do an oil finish the right way to even out the color.
As for your chairs, teak oil is a more effective cleaning agent than water! Grime on dining chairs usually has a lot of oil in it and water won’t do much to remove it. Teak oil along with #0000 steel wool will quickly loosen the grime and then you can just wipe it away. It will also soften latex paint scuffs where the chairs have rubbed against painted surfaces. Just be sure to wipe off all the dirty oil and reapply clean oil. No waiting between steps is necessary.
You should also be sure to use teak oil that has not oxidized at all because that would contribute to a gummy feel on the wood. It has a shelf life, especially the stuff with hardeners and varnishes in it.
Thanks for the advice. Yes Rustins is a wax and polish remover, I wont be using it again, I think it is a bit too harsh. I will try again with teak oil and #0000 wool. But before that I will clean up the Moller chairs, they are teak Model no. 75. I have removed all the woven paper chord seats, as they were all broken and badly stained. I tried weaving one chair to see if I could do it, it seemed to work well, took a day but the result matched the existing chairs, so gives me confidence to do the other 5.
Once again thanks for your help.