How to make fish heads when chair caning

How and Why to Make Caning Fish Heads

Remember a while ago (Yikes, it was in 2011), when I made a blog post about
Finding the Right Chair Caning Hole when you are weaving the diagonal cane strands?

Well, I discovered a video that I had made back then about that very topic called, Chair Caning Tip of the Day–Making Fish Heads and had uploaded it to my channel.

This video and the text below in this post will help you when adding fish heads to your chair seat. Enjoy!

Making the Chair Cane Fish Heads

Fish heads are made up of two diagonal strands, coming from the same direction and landing in the same hole. This technique or shape is called a fish head because it looks like the profile or side of a fish’s head.

Typically, there will be a fish head in each corner of a square chair or footstool frame. But on a trapezoid (wider in the front than in the back), seat frame, or a round or horseshoe-shaped frame, you will be adding fish heads in several other places besides just the four in the corner holes.

With complex-shaped frames, anything not a perfect square, you will need to “double-up” and add fish heads because there will be more cane strand ends than there are holes drilled on the frame.

And by creating the fish heads or doubling-up it will also help to create proper “Xs” on the other rows and also to cover up some wood on the frame when weaving a complex shape seat frame.

Wrong and right way to create fish heads and Xs in caning pattern — Wrong way to make the fish heads and corner on the left, correct way of caning on the right

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Please leave your comments below about this new video too! Let me know what your feelings are about this chair caning technique and what you might do differently.