How Rush Seats Are Made 
GATHERING AND DRYING THE RUSHES, TWISTING AND WEAVING THEM INTO A CHAIR 
SEAT THAT IS AS DURABLE AS LEATHER—A PROCESS THAT BAFFLES THE MACHINE 
by Louise Shrimpton 
HE adoption of machinery in the manu¬ 
facture of nearly every article of 
household furnishing has not extended to the 
making of rush seats. This is for the excel¬ 
lent reason that it is impossible to weave 
rush by machinery, as it is too uneven in 
length and in thickness to admit of being fed 
to even the most diabolically clever of ma¬ 
chines. Weaving as well as harvesting must 
be done by hand, now as in the early days of 
the flag-bottomed chair. Enterprising manu¬ 
facturers at one time made a spurious rush 
of paper, weaving it by machinery into imi¬ 
tation rush seats, but paper chairs proved 
unacceptable even to the humbug - loving 
American public, and our rush seats are still 
made of rush, preserving by necessity a very interesting hand craft. 
The increasing demand for this style of chair seats during 
the past six or seven years is probably due to the revival of inter¬ 
est in old Colonial furniture and its reproductions and to the 
growing preference for a simple type of modern chair, for which 
rush is eminently suitable. As a result of this demand it is now 
comparatively easy to find new rush seat chairs, or men capable 
of mending old ones. The weaving is in the hands of a few 
workmen scattered throughout the country, most of them of for¬ 
eign parentage. It is usually a home industry, though in some 
factories small groups of rush weavers are seen, surrounded by 
machines and their attendant workmen, the primitive and the 
modern in vivid contrast. While simple in its technique, rush¬ 
weaving requires strength of arm and hand, and expert work 
needs much practice. 
Home workers usually gather their own rush. The common 
bulrush or cat-tail, sometimes called flag, is used. Growing on 
marshy lands, it is of no value to farmers, who are glad to sell 
for a small sum the privilege of cutting it. 
In the latter part of August, when the cat¬ 
tails turn a velvety brown color, is the time 
for harvesting the slender blue-green leaves 
used for chair seats. Some of the workmen 
spend a week or so in the marshes at this 
season, camping out in tents if their homes 
are at a distance. The cutting is done with 
a sickle, the men standing for hours at a 
time in the water, which is sometimes knee- 
deep where the rushes grow thickest. After 
the sun has thoroughly dried them, the 
rushes are gathered into sheaves and stored 
in a hay-loft or in some place that is dry 
and warm. A few days before they are 
needed they are placed in water for about 
ten minutes, when they are taken out, covered with cloths, and 
left to soften. If the rush is too wet it is spoiled for use, but it 
must be dampened thoroughly to render it pliable. The last step 
in its preparation is called “snapping the flag,” and consists in 
running it through a clothes-wringer. The interior of a rush 
leaf is filled with tiny compartments of a sponge-like character, 
which make the rush inflexible and hard to manage. When run 
through the wringer, the air is forcibly expelled from this system 
of compartments with a report like a pistol shot. Some work¬ 
men snap the flag over a wooden peg, but this method is hard on 
the hands. A hundred years ago when rush seating for Colonial 
chairs was a flourishing industry, big wooden rollers were used 
in some localities for this part of the work. 
The rush is now soft and pliable, ready for use in weaving. 
The home worker sits in a strong light, usually in the family- 
kitchen or living-room. On the floor in front of him is an iron 
standard with a frame top on which the chair to be seated is fast- 
(Continued on page 115) 
ner, a continuous line of spliced 
rushes is woven from the outside 
towards the centre 
The rushes are gathered from the swamps 
when the cat-tails have turned brown— 
usually late in August 
There is no chair seat that seems so com¬ 
pletely at home with Colonial furniture 
as does the durable rush 
With the chair fastened upon a swivel post 
the weaver moistens his rushes and works 
around the frame 
(90 
