canvas

[CvdC]

I bought a canvas tent the other week in preparation for my week in the sub tropics. One aspect of the instructions that came with it was to wet it down and allow it to dry - three times. The reason is to shrink the canvas and close the weave to make it waterproof.
Now I have taken to putting 12 oz canvas into the sleeves of my puppets. This provides stiffness, giving body to the arms but also allows for the fingers to grip props, unlike card board or really stiff leather. I got the idea from those Roselia puppets and so all my recent puppets have this and I am fitting the same into my own set. I hate floppy arms as they obscure the puppet's gestures. Hands can wave about a bit but the arms need to be stiff.
While I was doing this I thought about my tent instructions and thought the same could apply to swazzle tape. Normally I would boil the tape and then wind it still wet onto the swazzle. But maybe if one were to allow the tape to dry and wet it again before winding it, would this be of some benefit?
I guess it would be the same as if you unwound an old swazzle, ironed the tape, wet it and then wound it again. I'll experiment.

[Chris]

I don't really see your point Chris. We don't use canvas for swazzle making, and we certainly don't want our tape to be waterproof.

And the idea of taking an old swazzle and re-wetting it? Surely a swazzle is wet every time it is used. It is wetted and dried hundreds of times.

The reason that you boil swazzle tape is to get rid of the dressing that is added to the fabric in its manufacture. Also boiling shrinks the tape which means that it will be less likely to alter its pitch through shrinkage.

The reason that we assemble the swazzle while the tape is wet is so that we are adjusting it while it is in the condition that it will be when in use in the mouth.

The secret of the swazzle isn't in the tape, or the wetting agent, or the shape of your mouth, or the day of the month, or the moon's phase. The secret is practice.

[CvdC]

"Also boiling shrinks the tape which means that it will be less likely to alter its pitch through shrinkage. "
That is the point.
If you shrink the tape I am assuming you make the gaps between the weave tighter. Given that when you buy tape you need to look for some with a tight weave. For air tightness rather than water proofing. If you do this before you tune the swazzle the tape will not shrink later.
I am assuming that it is the wetting and drying that does the shrinking. After it has shrunk you can then wet it again and wind it and tune it and hopefully it will stay in tune.
Like I say it is just an idea.

[Chris]

But since the boiling does it once and for all, and removes the dressing, which you certainly don't want, in addition, why the wetting and re-wetting?

Perhaps it would be an idea to boil the tents.

[Tony James]

I bought a canvas tent the other week in preparation for my week in the sub tropics. One aspect of the instructions that came with it was to wet it down and allow it to dry - three times. The reason is to shrink the canvas and close the weave to make it waterproof.

I'm still trying to work out this part.

What's the tent for? The audience?

And is it cotton canvas? Marquees and tents these days tend not to be canvas but mostly variations of either plastic coated textile or even plastic with a textile scrim reinforcement.

Acrylic weaves don't need wetting and wouldn't change if they were which is what I use as a frame cover.

And if it is for an audience how big is it?