colored tent

[Hammerhead]

dont know if this is where to put this but would they have ever dyed their tents a different color or just leave it the white or off white color

[Rev]

Oilskin was used, a medium to dark brown color.

[Mortblanc]

Painting tents was common in the discover/fur trade era.  Painting stripes on the seams was about the only way to waterproof the seams.

The paint in use back then was basically linseed oil and Japan driers (we use mineral spirits today) with pigment added.  that is what most paint was until our government banned the use of lead as a binder in the solution.  We have switched almost exclusively to acrilic.   

The popular trend of today is red ochure or yellow ochure, but other colors were available even on the frontier. 

You also have the condition brought about by rewaterproofing an old tent.  Often the chemicals in the new solution will turn the white canvas gray or give it a black tinge, sometimes it goes slightly yellow.

The only hard and fast rule I have seen anywhere, other than date restrictions for pyrimid/Baker/Whelin tents, is that they can not be OD green and they can not be made from a plastic tarp.  We once had to run off a guy that was setting up a beach umbrella with aluminum poles.    

[beezlebob]

Why no OD green? Back in the day, a white tent could be seen for a good ten miles away, good way to lose yer scalp. I god a great deal on a used boy scout wall tent, but was told I could set it up out with the motorhomes in the parking lot. No thanks.

[beezlebob]

No one answers my question, so I'll do my own rendezvous alone, no insurance, no thread counters, and by darn I can use my OD tent and have a ball.

[old salt]

I maybe away out in left field but I do not believe the of color came about until the  WW II as it could be seen from the air.

[beowulf]

thought this was interesting !  There are numerous official shades of "od" (the government numbered the shades 1 thru at least 33), this covers every item made for the military from socks to tents to aircraft paint. Most items we deal with, uniforms or field gear, were od no. 3 or od no. 7. ("no"= number). The wool service uniform was od no. 33 but that rarely comes up.

For decades collectors used the terms "khaki" and "od green" to differentiate between olive drabs no. 3 and 7. Number 3 is a light olive tan and number 7 is a dark olive green. Side by side, calling one "khaki" and the other "green" makes sense. It's less cumbersome than "olive drab number..." Despite rigid government specifications, "od" or "khaki" is not one single consistent color. All WWII uniforms and equipment exhibit a wide range of color and shade variations. When millions of items are produced, perfectly matching shades, even of the same color, are rare. With regard to od 3, originals range from olive, to pea green, mustard-brown to olive brown. There is no single correct shade.  so basically OD may go back further  than WWII , they just did`nt call it that until the federal government decided to use it for military gear ! 

[bmtshooter]

Wood parts of Civil War cannon carriages and many wagons were painted "OD" although that term was not yet in use.  A great deal of testing was done a few years back on original paint samples from cannon carriages (Artilleryman Magazine documented).  As Beowulf said, there was a great deal of variation.  At that time, the military specified the color by giving a recipe, but of course individual ingredients were not consistent, and batch variation was pretty broad.  Our ability to reproduce exact colors is a relatively recent achievement.