[Regia-NA] tent fabrics

[Chris Boulton]

> Has anyone tried using linen or wool as a tent fabric?

Hi Karen, looks like you missed my earlier posting, but yes, I've used linen
canvas.

Incidentally, I'm using the term 'canvas' here to indicate a heavy grade
close weave material such as might be used for tents or sails, not to
indicate a material made from a specific fibre - I'll say 'linen canvas' or
'cotton canvas' when I want to do that.

So....exactly what fabric was used in period I don't think we really know,
but by examining the characteristics of the various types we may draw some
conclusions as to which are the most likely. Wool has been claimed to have
been used for sails, but unless they had a way of weaving it so that it
didn't stretch and sag badly when wet, I've always had my doubts. Linen is
known to have been in production, and rather than stretching when wet, it
tends to shrink slightly and tighten up. It also dries quicker than wool,
but is prone to mildew. Hemp is very like linen, but I've not used it in
tent canvas due to lack of availability. Nettle should be quite good, as
it's a long staple and was much favoured for ropes and fishing nets and
lines, but again availability is a problem.

So Grantanbrycg (the local group of Regia from Cambridgeshire, England) made
a group tent from real linen canvas. This was a bit of an experiment, as
although we'd decided on it's design and were happy with that, we had made
no final decision on what method of proofing we were going to use.

Having completed the tent - a saga in itself - we used it first unproofed to
see how it performed, and were rather surprised to find that even in quite
heavy rain it did very well. There's an initial aerosol of fine moisture
penetration until the weave tightens up after the first minute or so, then
no leakage. Needless to say, nothing must touch the fabric, or water will
come through at that point.

The options for proofing that we had considered were to use a mixture of
beeswax and turpentine, or to use fish oil. The beeswax method has been used
by Dutch and Danish re-enactors, and works well though it needs constant
maintainance, makes the tent a dark tan colour (and therefore like an oven
in hot sunshine), is a fire risk and makes the fabric heavy and bulky. As to
the fish oil method - we didn't know of anyone who'd done it, but the idea
of trying to sleep in a tent that stank of rancid fish didn't appeal very
much.

So we've left it unproofed ever since, and it's done just fine - we just
have to make sure we dry it out thoroughly and immediately after use.

> Most of us use canvas these days, but as I understand it, canvas wouldn't
> have been particularily period (to the Vikings...early Regia time).

Cotton canvas certainly wouldn't have been used, as it was nothing more than
an expensive curio from Egypt at the time.

Cheers,

Chris.