RE: Caning

>  Why shoot for an hour on caning 6 chairs?
>  Just to see if I could. 
>  Does this mean I could always do six chairs in an hour?
>  No. 



Utah Rich writes:

In partial defense of the impossible. My partner's daughter is fast, but not 
that fast. We have discussed fast amongst ourselves and sited the cottage 
industry of New York states Southern terre and Up State areas. Companies 
such as Mottville Chair, Sinclair Chair, Stickley Brothers, Harden Furniture, 
and many more used to hire local residents to do caning, rushing and other 
styles of seat weaving. 

They would pick up their chairs in the morning with the days materials, take 
them home and return them in the evening. Often a dozen chairs a day was 
a minimum to continue getting the work. I think that frequently these were 
done by families and not an individual, but they had a daily quota. 

Hitchcock Chair Company would give each prospective employee a test 
to see how fast they could do a chair seat before they were even hired. 

If memory serves me they expected a journeyman employee to rush a chair 
in 1/2 hour and cane in only slightly more time. Don't quote me, because this 
is dredging up information from deep in my memory (learned during my days 
in Upstate NY, about Ummmmm,,,,, years ago).  

Speed was necessary to continue employment, but how fast 
I really can't say, nor do I want to duplicate it.

Just my thoughts,

Utah Rich





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