Upholstery Springs
Another method of joining up the springs is by metal clips. The second layer is usually comprised of ordinary coil springs directly over the single-cone springing and fastened in the same way. The metal laths or \'straps\' are bent over at the front to fix on the face of the front rail.
Upholstery webbing is made in various qualities. The best-known and the highest grade is known in the trade as \'English Webbing\' or \'Black and White Webbing\'. It is made of pure flax in a herring-bone design of black and white. Lesser qualities have a percentage of jute, cotton or hemp and often a linen thread is woven to improve the selvedge strength.
The widths run from 2 in., 21/8 in. and 21/4 in. and are bought in pieces. English webbing pieces are 18 yds. in length whilst the cheaper forms run to 36 yds. a piece. The lesser-grade webbing is plain brown in colour and striped.
Made of jute throughout and imported from India comes a plain weave in widths from 11/2 in. to 3 in. This is possibly the cheapest of all webbings. Naturally the prices of these webbings are much below our webs.
In choosing the type and quality of material to cover upholstered furniture, previous thought should be given to the value of the furniture and the usage to which it will be subjected, also to the general decor of the room it is to occupy.
In the hey-day of upholstery the drawing-room was furnished with the finest linens and silks and the living-room with more robust materials such as tapestries and moquettes; or as they are called in America, mohairs.
The area of a full cowhide skin is between 40 and 65 sq. ft. These are the largest skins and consequently give much less waste when cutting. They are very durable and modern methods of polishing and dyeing produce a beautifully soft hide.
They are classified into two groups known as full-grained hides and buffed skins. The latter is the less costly of the two grades. It gets its name \'buffed\' from the process of rubbing or buffing the hide with carborundum stone. This is carried out to obviate blemishes in the skin.
From: Upholstery by: Arthur Bevin
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