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The Advantages of Canvas Tents

Canvas Tent Cabin
Image by mindgrow via Flickr

There are both advantages and disadvantages to canvas tents

One of the primary advantages of canvas tents is that canvas is extremely strong and durable. Whilst it is heavier than other materials used in tents it is also way stronger. Canvas is extremely difficult to tear, and if you do tear it that there is unlikely to travel very far.

Contrast that with the nylon used in many of the common nylon tents available today. It’s quite possible to see a nylon tent tear from one end to the other. I have seen a nylon tent in strong winds where the fly has completely torn to pieces. This is highly unlikely with a canvas tent.

Should canvas tear it is quite possible to repair it, and not particularly difficult. It can be much more of a problem repairing torn nylon.

Although canvas is heavier than nylon this offers another advantage as well. One layer of canvas is sufficiently waterproof, if treated properly, to avoid the necessity of having to use a fly.

This means that canvas tents are usually simple to erect and also to pack away. A nylon tent is usually susceptible to leaking without the use of a fly because nylon is not particularly waterproof once it has been used for a while. As nylon is used and as the weave breaks down a little with use, particularly in the wind, a single surface nylon tent is unlikely to stay waterproof for long.

Canvas stands up well to the rigours of ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Nylon will eventually perish from sunlight, and when this happens the tent has basically had it.

Canvas breathes better than nylon, meaning that it is less likely to develop condensation, or moisture, on the inside and it should also be cooler in summer than nylon.

But at the end of the day the major advantage of canvas tents is their durability. It’s perfectly possible to have a good canvas tent provided great service for 10 or 15 years. I say this from personal experience as I have had two canvas tents, both of which I still have, which had lasted well over 10 years. And I have had a nylon hiking tent, though a very good tent, fall to pieces in the wind after the nylon started to perish from its time in the sun. Read the rest of this entry

Written by - Canvas Tent Advice

What is Canvas?

Canvas
Image via Wikipedia

A canvas tent is made of canvas. But what is it?

Whilst canvas tents are extremely popular many people don’t know exactly what canvas is.

Canvas has been around for thousands of years. Its use has been traced back for 3000 years, when originally it was used primarily for making sails. It was also used for making shelters which were the forerunner of the modern tent.

Canvas is a heavy duty cloth made of cotton, or occasionally linen or a blend of the 2. Modern canvas is primarily made from cotton. In the past it has also been made from hemp, though this is now not the case.

Canvas is a plain weave fabric. In a plain weave fabric the warp and the weft are made in a simple criss-cross pattern, or in other words each thread crosses over and then under the succeeding threats.

It is extremely heavy duty and for this reason is very durable and hard wearing and as such is used for a variety of different users requiring sturdy, strong and long-lasting materials. Obviously tents are one of these uses, however camvas is also used primarily in manufacturing such devices as backpacks which also require a strong and durable material, though nylon is also being used.

Because of its legendary durability and this has also been used for a range of other uses which might be surprising if you haven’t come across them before. For example camvas has been used for making canoes. The frame of the canoe is made from timber and then the canvas is stretched over the timber, forming a waterproof outer hull.

Canvas is heavier than most other materials. For example it is significantly heavier than nylon, the other material which is commonly used in tents. For this reason canvas tents are generally much heavier than nylon tents and usually much bulkier, which of course make them more difficult to pack, and they take up more room.

However because they are so durable they are far stronger, and less liable to tear, than nylon. Read the rest of this entry

Written by - Canvas Tent Advice
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