[Regia-NA] tent canvas source

[Wulfhere se Treowryhta]

As for brilliant white, nothing a tablespoon of yellow,red and green 
dye won't cure. So, I'll have to put my ignorance on display and say 
that I thought the word "canvas" implied cotton. There was another 
reply about painter's tarps being real bad in weather. I'm left 
wondering what kind of cotton canvas is good in weather and how it gets 
that way. For my purposes, a tent would be my last problem as I need so 
many more things before I could attend a regia event. Speaking strictly 
historically, I would think a commoner would probably never come to own 
a tent and would just sleep under whatever availed itself while hunting 
or on campaign, or more likely, just get wet if it rained.


On Thursday, September 25, 2003, at 11:52 AM, Chris Boulton wrote:

>> Is all this conversation about cotton canvas evidence that this is
>> acceptable?? I thought I heard a very clear "cotton is strictly out of
>> period,"  message? I'd have had a geteld in the backyard months ago 
>> if I
>> thought.....
>
> Cotton is indeed out of period, in that although it was known, it was 
> an
> imported (and expensive) curio from Egypt at the time rather than 
> something
> generally used.
>
> The attitude taken toward cotton canvas tents here in England is that 
> they
> are a necessary evil, as real linen canvas has been next to impossible 
> to
> obtain, though this situation seems to be slowly improving.
>
> I managed - purely by happening to know the right person at the right 
> time,
> to obtain a 100metre roll of real linen canvas about five years ago, 
> from
> which we made our group tent, and I have enough left over to make a 
> saxon
> tent for myself when I get round to it.
>
> The main problem with cotton canvas at a public display event is that 
> the
> colour is different - the cotton tends to be a rather brilliant white,
> whereas the linen is a very light tan colour. We get around this 
> problem by
> explaining the availability problem to the public if they ask, rather 
> than
> trying to pretend the cotton is linen.
>
> A good way to hide the obvious bright white of the cotton canvas is to 
> pitch
> the tent with the canvas on inside out, and light a small and well 
> tended
> fire in the centre of the floor space. The smoke will stain and 
> discolour
> the fabric making it less obviously bright white cotton when it is
> re-pitched the right way out.
>
> Chris.
>
>
>
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