[J. Kari]

Hello to all.

My reenacment society wants to make a new tent and we are currently looking for a source of fabric.
Where can we buy thich woolen fabric by meter ? We would need approximately 20-30 meters depending from the width of the canvas. It has to be thick, waterproof and with suitable loom with non-noticable pattern - just plain colour.

If anyone knows a great source of supplier that would be much helpful and we would appriciate it very much.
The location would be good if it would be in Europe, but we could also order from other parts of world.
I am currently communicating with snexports.com since they sell hand-woven canvas, but its by pieces and not suitable for us -as again - by meter or bigger pieces( starting from 4 meters in lenght)

Regards,
Juhan

[Artis Aboltins]

I can not name a specific supplier, but our group managed to find a source of fabric for our Osberg-style tent in woolen fabric intended for making flags. And since part of our national flag is white, or rather, light beige in flags we got a very nice and strong fabric - it is apparently wool but very tightly woven so it is practically waterproof unless there is something really severe. It is, of course, machine made, but when we asked ladies in our group who make home-made fabric, they explained the expenses and we decided against the idea of making our own fabric rather swiftly

[Sander Marechal]

If your reenactment society is going to use the tent on events, you might want to consider "cheating" and going for modern tent canvas in a suitable colour. Event regulations with regards to fire hazards and fireproofing of tents are becoming a lot more strict. I believe that here in The Netherlands (and maybe throughout Europe) tents at events must be fireproofed in the near future. Fireproofing canvas after fabrication is messy, expensive and often not water proof (so it needs to be repeated after the tent has been in the rain). That is why our group decided to "cheat" and go with modern fireproofed tent canvas.

Something to consider before you buy your canvas.

[Dan Howard]

Wool is naturally fire retardant. Have you tried looking for felt?

[Glennan Carnie]

Be careful when buying wool. Even wool sold as "Pure Wool" could have as much as 5% synthetic content - which will burn rather nicely. Some vendors will even sell wools with up to 20% synthetic content as 'pure'.

I'd recommend getting a sample / swatch of your selected material and doing a 'flame test' on it. A 100% wool should barely smoulder when a flame is applied. A wool with synthetic content will burn and give off acrid fumes.

[Blaz Berlec]

I would search on Ebay.de for Loden - that's the name for wool textile which retains lanolin (natural oils in wool) for water resistance.

Even loden that is described as heavy comes surprisingly thin. I have used 400 and 620 gr/m², and they both look almost as thin as ordinary wool on my doublet - but they are very dense. They really do hold water - they are much denser than all linen tents that I have seen (and even they don't leak), and oils in loden really do repel water to certain extent (like walking for half an hour in rain in loden coat without getting wet)

Woolen fabric that has only a couple % of synthetic fibre (usually as reinforcement threads for stabilising) will not burn much differently than 100% wool, but you will smell the plastic. So I think all "100%" wools should be OK, unless you need certified fireproofing. If you need that, then you don't have any other option than modern material with certificate.

[J. Kari]