How to restore a Danish chair - Arne Hovmand-Olsen - Stage 2 - weaving

Graeme Matthews August 31, 2025

Arne Hovmand-Olsen chair with cord spokes restored.

Stage 2: Weaving Danish cord

Lets begin with something perhaps a wee bit controversial.

I have reservations about the Hovmand-Olsen weave. I like its appearance but...

Every set of Hovmand chairs I have come across (that have not been recently restored with

Danish corded chair with some broken cord.

new cord) have had breaks in the weave. Always the same place. At the front of the five central spokes.

Now I may have just have had bad luck. They may have all been really old. But I do think this is a weak spot for that style of weave. The cord looks snapped as opposed to abraded. Perhaps the looped weave style puts greater weight bearing on this area. So...

...I have opted to weave them in the traditional Moller style.

The Moller style requires hooked nails whereas the Hov style relies on just staples. So this adds a whole extra layer of work.

Setting the nails

The front and rear rails each have 17 nails and the side rails both have around 26 nails. So each chair has a total of approx 86 nails. No doubt a full-time artisan weaver would just size up those rails and knock in those nails. I could pick up this free-wheeling approach given a wee bit of time. But for now I will fall back on past methods and favour accuracy. Also each nail hole should be pre-drilled to avoid splitting the rails. And each nail should be height offset from the previous one to further allay any risk of splitting the timber.

To avoid having to mark-up every chair I made 3 jigs so that I could make repeated accurately drilled holes and speed up the whole process. It's still a long process.

Three jigs used for drilling nail holes.

A jig held in place on a chair rail by two clamps.

A broken line of Danish nails on a chair rail.

Weaving the spokes

Cord detail for the cord spokes shown from internal perspective. The cord having been tacked and then wound around the Danish nails.

Some folks like to start the process by wrapping the cord end around multiple side rail nails to secure. I prefer to tack into the corner where it doesn't interfere with weaving later. Especially when you have nails with a short hook like I am currently using.

I have never measured the lengths of cord for each stage properly. I just measure it in arm lengths stretched out in front of my chest...its 17 of those for these chairs!

Likewise for the front wraps 8 arm lengths and 7.5 for the rear.

According to my rule my stretch is about 1.5m. So about 26m for the spokes. But it is so much easier just adapting a physical measure than trying to metrically measure each length.

Lengths required will obviously vary with chair design and nail settings.

Arne Hovmand-Olsen chair with cord spokes restored. Shown from the rear and upside-down.

Close-up of the internal cording around the nails.

Weaving the Hovmand-Olsen chairs in this style is more difficult than that for the Moller chairs because of the profile of the rails.

The rails on Moller chairs have a curved outer profile. This allows the weaver to easily pull up the cord to sit snugly on the rail. The Olsen chairs have a square profile making the operation less fluid. Working from point to point. Keeping the cord on the side of the rails taut enough to lay flat whilst not over tensioning the spokes. This is equally true when laying the weaves.

Also the front and rear rails are curved top and bottom. Which make for a lovely feature to the finished chairs. But care is needed to tension the spokes correctly whilst they are in the right position. The cord naturally tries to ride down the curve which must be avoided when creating the correct tautness of spoke. A spoke drawn firm in an incorrect position lower on the curve will end up being an over tensioned spoke when the spoke is moved to its correct position.

Infill wraps

Arne Hovmand-Olsen chair with cord spokes and infil wraps restored. Shown from the front.

Arne Hovmand-Olsen chair with cord spokes and infil wraps restored. Shown from the rear.

Find the halfway point in the wrap length and hang over the centre hook. Hammer this down to hold. I don't recommend hammering home the other nails as. To do so would mean you have little to nothing to catch on to when moving between spokes. For a neater finish you want to come down vertically on each last wrap, hook under the nail and move across to the other side of the spoke. Make sure each one has moved over correctly and is lying flat to the rail.

The weave

Arne Hovmand-Olsen chair with a quarter of the weaving completed.

The weave should be achieved with a continuous length of cord. So work directly from your spool and try to keep it knot free.

Tack or staple to front of side rail with cut end up. Gather a loop that extends approx 20cm further than the opposite rail. Then begin weaving. The first weave is over the outer spokes of four. It is then hooked over the first nail.

Its is important to main a good tension on the cord over the rails while not over tensioning the weave. This will take some practise. If the first weave is over tensioned it is likely to sit closer to the front rail than desired and refuse to sit neatly with the subsequent weaves. If this occurs after 3 weaves unweave and begin again.

My method of working involves gathering the necessary length for a weave. Pinching the mid point to create a tighter point to weave. Draw the cord taut from the nail and pinch it taut around the rail using your fingertips. Making sure not to allow it to slacken and it stays acceptably flat to the outside of the rail. I keep it taught on the rail top with my thumb whilst weaving with my right hand. Once woven I give the first string a light tug in line with the first nailing point to take out slack. Use the four fingers of my right hand to span through the first four spokes and draw the first four weaves of first length into position. This should now hold the cord tight enough to allow the thumb to relax. Gather up the rest of the weaves. Pin taut around nail on right rail, again finger pinching. Tug other end. gather first four weaves. Relax pinch...Its tough on the fingers and hands.