Wax canvas tarps.

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Perci117

Member
Jan 21, 2021
36
14
35
Yorkshire
Evening all,
Would like to ask a bit of advise. I've been using a regular silnylon tarp for a few years now, but soon as pandemic permits. I fancy going the more traditional route.

Browse bag, wool blankets and a canvas tarp.

Any of you done this old school camp, and could you recommend a tarp?

Cheers all
 

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,801
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~Hemel Hempstead~
Have a word with Steven over at Poole Baybushcraft on FB as he makes canvas kit to order

 
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kard133

Full Member
Mar 20, 2010
775
161
Bath
I keep seeing Bushcraft Spain coming up on Etsy, never used their gear but it looks good, and cheaper than tentsmiths, otherwise you could go the DIY route, plenty of waxed canvas fabric on ebay, look for meadium weight or greater than 7oz.
 

MrEd

Life Member
Feb 18, 2010
2,148
1,053
Surrey/Sussex
www.thetimechamber.co.uk
I waxed the canvas tarp for my trailer using my homemade diy Greenland wax recipe. Worked really well, made it properly water resistant. BUT it makes it quite a bit stiffer and more awkward to handle, not really a problem on a trailer but for a tarp to sleep under may be a consideration?

thread on the wax is here


Photos are missing (I will see if I can find them) but the recipe is still there

EDIT: I can’t find the original photos so will make a new batch and update the photos to the forum direct
 
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Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
What is a browse bag? Is it a straw sack?
Here a German seller offers a used French army linen straw sack, pretty cheap. But I think they had been used exclusively in the barracks.
As far as I am informed armies just did put the straw into the tent, without bag.


Usually one can find all surplus equipment in all European countries.
I just recently found it on this page, because it is my traditional shop, 100 years old, by the way. But you could search it in Britain too.

 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
This shop is a very trusty German boy scout shop. As far as I am informed the tarps and tents are made in Czechia.
The seller speaks English, not perfectly but good enough, as I have seen in a video.
These cotton sheets are treated with a fire retardant cotton tent impregnation. That's approximately WW2 standard. There is no wax on them, but it works very well. I think, it works better than wax.

In the other tents they sell German boy scouts ignite well sized fires inside!
It is and stays cotton, but doesn't catch fire from every little spark.

I don't know the tarp, but I am used to such fabric. I surely slept 1000 nights in such tents.

 
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Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
Custom made in Germany, high end quality: Tschum!

Dutch Tencate or Swiss cotton fabric.
Modern cut, old fashioned material.

Long waiting list, because it is a 1 man business, similar to custom knife makers.

The construction isn't optimised to sleep by the fire. To sleep by the fire a lean to shelter is better, because it doesn't catch smoke in the hood like this here could do it.

 
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Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
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Berlin
Unissued NVA Zeltbahn, the tent sheet of the East German Army.
You would need two of it.

I own and used it, should you have questions.


This you surely also can find in Britain.
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
I am used to such old stuff. I know most of the WW2 and Cold War equipment.
One of my friends traded with it for many years.

We used such stuff in the German boy scouts, no plastic equipment. I have seen most of it in use and I own a lot of such equipment and used it for decades. I could open a little military museum with my old camping equipment.

If you have questions, just ask!

@Le Loup is a specialist in older patterns.
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
Here is a specialised seller for reproductions of old army equipment. You can buy here factory new equipment that is made as close as possible to the originals. One surely could say, the stuff is made according to the old military specifications.


But there is still a lot of old school original military material available too. One just needs to know approximately what you want to get. Originals are often really cheap, especially equipment from the sixties, that was nearly made like WW2 equipment and often stored until now, used or even unissued.
 
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Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
The German Boy Scout tent KOHTE is sectioned into 4 parts to get it portable.

That is a 100 years ago by the German Eberhard Koebel modernised traditional Finnish KOTA, a real "lavvu" where one can ignite a well sized fire in, without a tent stove!

Just one part can be used as a little tent. The edge of the smoke hole is the foot end in this case.



700€ for 4 sheets and the little roof for the smoke hole:


Attention! There are two sizes of the Kohte, only the large one makes really comfortable 2 man tents if only one sheet is used!

The large one gets connected a bit different than the small one, what doesn't really matter, but I show you the small one too, because in this video the seller of these tents speaks English.

 
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Stockers16

Member
Feb 14, 2021
32
9
33
England
I've recently acquired a Bilmo 3mx3m tarp and it's absolutely bombproof. Don't know if I'll ever use it though as I'm quite attached to my basha, thinking about making it into a smock
 
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