[MR] Authenticity Police?

[Tim]

Well, using polyethylene would not be my first choice of modern materials.
There are, however, cotton tarps available in home improvement stores that
are water proofed (but I don't know of their fire resistance quality).  The
only problem I have found with these tarps is the color, which is a light
brown (something similar found in baby diapers from time to time). While
these tarps are also a sight more expensive than the polyethylene tarps,
they are quite a bit less expensive than buying water resistant canvas off
the roll (not to mention products like Sunforger).

I the other thing that I would question is how well the seams you are sowing
would hold up to strong winds.  I've seen  polyethylene tarps shred to
pieces once torn, and I would think that if you sew a seam in too tight a
stitch, it would weaken the tarp too much and you would get the same result
as a tear.

As far a the Authenticity Police is concerned, I believe that you have to do
what you must to keep you and your comfortable.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Towey, Brian" <cbt4489 at GlaxoWellcome.com>
To: <atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2001 2:44 PM
Subject: [MR] Authenticity Police?


> Dear Friends and Neighbors,
>
> I have, until now, been daunted by the prospect of sewing miles and miles
of
> French seams to make a family-sized pavilion.  The high probability of
> ending up with a thousand dollars worth of shapeless and leaky canvas was
> more than I was prepared to face.
>
> Well!  I have recently discovered what many of you must already know: that
> tarpaulins of enormous size (up to 40 x 60 feet!) are now available at
> little cost.  What's more, although they are woven polyethylene, they are
> not always an obnoxious blue.
>
> The large size makes it possible to create a pavilion that is, as it were,
> cut from whole cloth. A single huge piece, with only a few darts to shape
> it.
>
> With careful layout, for example, a 10'x20' oval pavilion could be cut
from
> a single 25'x25' tarp, with only six seams in the whole project, and nary
a
> hem.  Total cost, including decoration, well under $100, and finished in
an
> afternoon.
>
> I realize this may be flame bait, but I have to ask.
>
> Will the Authenticity Police throw me in the stocks if an otherwise-period
> pavilion is made of synthetic materials?  Will some sort of  "one drop
rule"
> banish my half-breed tent to the geodesic ghetto?  Will friends avert
their
> eyes and decline to enter for fear of being tainted?
>
> In other words, how does the Reasonable Attempt rule apply to campgrounds?
>
> I asked this on another forum and received many stern lectures on the
> virtues of canvas and the evils of plywood camp furniture, even when
> painted.  So, I would like an opinion from a more general audience.
>
> Yours,
>
> Charles Fleming
> mka Brian Towey
>
>
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