Staining canvas tents. A report.

[Hibernicus]

I've gotta ask, how do you explain your tents to the crowd? Do you tell them the tents are leather? Or that they're canvas painted to look like leather? Or do you not say anything, and hope everyone thinks they're leather but keep your fingers crossed.
Paul Elliott

First they're stained, not painted. The colorant is a water based wood stain that penetrates the canvas. About $20 to do a Panther Primitives "Roman" wall tent.

Explain. We used to have to explain why we looked like an American Civil War camp!

1) We tell folk that we're trying to create a better impression in that a Roman camp was brown not white.

2) we can talk in depth about goatskin. We have herds of goatskin from North Africa in camp!; show them the goatskin papilio for comparison; talk about costs in materials and labor... they then understand the use of canvas !