Grenfell cloth and ventile

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treadlightly

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Jan 29, 2007
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It seems to me that grenfell cloth and ventile are very similar beasts. Are there actually any differences between the two fabrics and if so which would you say is better?
 
Oh deary me. I'm infamous :rolleyes: :D

Technically there are differences, but in use, certainly for the kind of things we're likely to use them for, nothing that matters.
Except that production of Grenfell cloth stopped about twenty years ago.

From handling the cloth I reckoned it was a heavier weight than the ventile we use. Still very tightly woven but ventile was intended to make immersion suits for pilots, whereas Grenfell was always intended for outdoor clothing.

Probably lots of information available on the net :dunno:

cheers,
Toddy
 
A bit of internet searching reveals that apparently ventile is an oxford weave whereas grenfell is a twill. Is this an important difference?
 
Yes and no. It's important because of the way the fibres will tighten when wet. Ventile will tighten into a hard stiff cloth. It becomes very water resistant when it does so. The twill weave is a very strong fabric but it has a surface with only one third of the undershots that a basket weave (oxford) will have.
Grenfell cloth was very windproof but also very breathable. It was definitely shower proof and when very tightly woven pretty rainproof, but in persistant rain it would let in where double layer ventile would not.
At it's simplest, Grenfell was woven, over under over under over under, while twill ventile was woven over two under one over two under one.

Does this help ?

I think John Fenna's probably the best person to ask about this kind of thing, he has probably reviewed the stuff, and might even have designed clothing using it's properties to their best advantage.

cheers,
Toddy
 

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