[Regia-NA] tent fabrics

[Adam MacDonald]

Avete!

One of my tent-making cronies (who 'does' Central Asian) experimented with
using milk as a proofing experiment (a traditional treatment in parts of
Tibet and Nepal) - it worked well, but the smell was too much for modern
sensibilities. She could ignore it (the hideous stench of Satan's bum) after
a bit, but the responses from those camped near her were.... less than
joyful.

The fish oil may have been preferable...

Scythius

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Boulton <chris.boulton@ntlworld.com>
To: <list-regia-na@lig.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 2:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Regia-NA] tent fabrics


> > 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.
>
>
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