By: Sarah Martin
The retail dealer in furniture must accustom himself to being able to recognize qualities in upholstered furniture bought from the manufacturer, as in no other line of work is it possible to pass off inferior goods so easily. The actual upholstery is entirely covered in a finished chair or sofa, and often two finished chairs will appear exactly similar in outward aspect, yet one will outwear the other several times over.
It is safe to say that 90% of the wholesale manufacturers do not furnish the best grade of material and workmanship in the goods that they sell. In the first place, all upholstery frames should be made of ash. The exposed portions only, such as feet or arms, should be made of the decorative wood required, such as oak, mahogany or walnut, etc.
Webbing which upholds the springs and corner guards (http://www.ferche.com) should be four inches wide, and the best grade has four red threads running parallel about one-half inch from each edge. The inferior grades are narrower, with blue and black threads at the edges instead of red.
The webbing should be tightly stretched and interlaced and should be nailed with seven tacks at each end. If good webbing is used, it can generally be taken for granted that the better quality goods are used throughout. The webbing can be examined by tearing off a corner of the black cambric covering underneath the chair.
The next item to examine on an upholstered piece is the gimp which covers the tacks. This should be of good quality and well glued, firm and flat, instead of being tacked to the frame.
The stronger springs should be in the middle of the seat, the weaker in the rear and the balance in the front and sides. The best grade of springs have the ends of the springs knotted to the next loop, the inferior grades do not, the ends being merely cut off along with the corner protector (http://www.ferche.com).
The advantage of the knotted spring is that it cannot unwind or get loose from its fastening and gradually slip through the upholstery material. The springs should be japanned or enameled. Each spring should be tied in six places with a firm knot instead of a simple loop and they should be all tied together, each in four directions. The ends of the springs should be nailed firmly to the frame work. The springs should be covered on top with a piece of heavy burlap and each spring should be sewed to the burlap in four places.
A continuous twine should be used. The best hair is "South American Drawings," which is long and soft horse hair that has been sterilized, treated and curled, either black or white in color. The white is slightly more expensive but no better in quality. There should, however, be no short pieces mixed in. The hair is placed on top of the burlap which covers the springs, and under the cross-stitching of twine, the hair is worked and interlaced by the experienced upholsterer.
Over this is loosely tacked a piece of light burlap, which in turn is sewn to the under heavy burlap. This is done by means of a series of squares covering the whole scat or back. After this is completed, additional hair is worked in, and then the top piece of light burlap is tacked tightly down to the frame and wall protectors with tacks about 1/4" apart.
The edgings are now shaped and the edge stitching made, under which is placed a thin layer of hair and over this is placed unbleached material, firmly stretched and tacked on the sides. Over this is placed a layer of cotton wadding, and finally the finished material, which is tacked closely to the molding. The gimp is then glued over the tacks as a finish, and finally the black cambric is nailed to the bottom side and the piece is complete.
In inferior workmanship, the stuffing may be of excelsior, sea weed, moss, goats' hair, pigs' hair, or old rags, and with the amount of detailed labor and the number of processes used in properly doing upholstery work, one can readily judge that the quality of both material and workmanship can be very greatly varied, causing the actual cost of the finished work to run a considerable range, all of which can be hidden under the final covering.
