Hi all. I want to try out making my own gear, but have hit a slight road block. I have gone around town looking at nylon in the various stores, but am unsure whether or not the nylon that I am looking at is regular (non-coated) ripstop or silnylon. The people at the local stores are pretty much clueless as to anything but what the fabric is made of (i.e. nylon) and what the weights of the materials. To top this all off the fabric spools are unintelligible to me.

So, my question is, how do I tell the difference between these fabrics? I want to make a tarp but don't want to get wet in the middle of the night because I used the wrong fabric. Thanks in advance for the help.

Cheers

Most nylon in fabric stores is just calendared (heat pressed) on one side so it looks shiny. I have seen some that has some plasticky coating on it but it wasn't silnylon. Silnylon feels really, really slippery (almost soapy) if you fold it over and rub it against itself. You can get the good stuff from:

http://thru-hiker.com/materials/coated.php

Edited by d0rqums on 08/28/2008 13:28:00 MDT.

Jeremy,
Until you learn to ID fabrics, it is much better to buy from a retailer who says they carry what you want. Look in BPL Forums: "Make Your Own Gear >> Materials Sourcing" for links to suppliers. You are very unlikely to simply luck onto good material locally. Most of it will be Nylon6 - a garment grade fabric that is vastly inferior to the Nylon 6.6 used in most outdoor gear.

Edited by vickrhines on 08/28/2008 17:16:05 MDT.

Thanks for the help, I'll take a look around the internet.

Cheers.