New canvas tent

[lingeringstin...]

Nylon tents are retarded. I have a nice new virgin canvas tent. It's an "Anglo" A-frame ridge tent from some German company. One entrance, no floor, no zips, much like an old school scout patrol tent. Reactors use them etc.

The canvas quality is amazing but I did have to cobble up some poles out of wooden curtain rods and various hardware.

To be weatherproof I generally always fling a silnylon tarp over my tents as a flysheet with a few inches between the tent and the tarp for an air gap.

However, that leaves the ends exposed to the hundred mile per hour sideways rain you're guaranteed to experience every time you go camping (fuck you Ben Macdui).

So on my other canvas tents I spray the exposed ends with Wood Silk which is a beeswax based furniture polish and just leave the roof and walls alone for breathability. Laugh if you want but it bloody works.

But this new tent is a fair bit more posh and more expensive than the French or Dutch army surplus canvas tents I usually like to use. For starters you can stand up in this new one and there's room for a proper camp bed instead of lying on the cold floor, so I don't want to bugger this new one up.

Is there any reason why I can't just Wood Silk the front and back of it like I've done on my other tents? I don't want to damage the canvas.

Looking at you, Stinkwheel.

[A100man]

I have a canvas frame tent for car camping trips. As far as I know no extra proofing is required as once wetted the fabric 'shrinks to seal'.
I read this on UK Campsite forum and to be fair my tent hasn't leaked but then I've never been in monsoon conditions just Wales.
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Now: A100, GT250A, XJ598, FZ750, SL1000

Then: Fizz, RS200, KL250, XJ550, Laverda Alpina, XJ600, FZS600, Skorpion

[stinkwheel]

As above, you shouldn't need to put anything on proper canvas.

I've known people do them with thompsons waterseal brick waterproofer, but only on older ones that were getting a bit leaky. You need a couple of good sunny days to do this for the solvent to evaporate fully or you'll gas yourself.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[lingeringstin...]

Well this new tent has the best canvas of any tent I've had so it's probably going to be OK with a silnylon flysheet over it.

My favourite small canvas tent for rallies and things is the bog standard Dutch Army one you can pick up for like 35 or 40 quid from surplus shops. They're small and no room for a camp bed but you can zip two of them together which is a neat trick, but it does mean lugging two tents around. But singularly they're quick to put up and fairly bulletproof.

This new reinactor tent is not much bigger to pack than the Dutch army one but it's tall enough to stand up in which is nice and you have the option of using a floor or not.

The canvas is great so maybe if I can get it wet and dried out a couple of times the job's a goodun.