duck tape? gaffers/gaffer tape?

[Michael McKernan]

 Wilson Gray wrote
>
>FWIW, The Movie Channel once showed brief infomercials between movies.
>The one that featured gaffer's tape showed it looking a lot more like
>what I know as "electrician's tape" - smooth, black, stretchy plastic -
>and not at all like duck/duct tape - textured, silvery, non-stretchy
>cloth.
>
>Of course, that impression could have been merely an artifact of the
>(lack of) effort put into filming a two-minute time-filler combined
>with a non-hi-def CRT.

Don't buy that brand!   I once bought some plastic 'duct' tape.  Bad
mistake.  Too weak, kept ripping and sticking to itself.  Impossible to use
without a very good, fluent command of profanity, with plenty of indecency
and obsecenity thrown in at critical moments.  Even then, a tough hoe to
row.

Most gaffer's tape is matte (dull finish) so it won't be too visible on
stages/sets.  The goods stuff is cloth (not plastic).  Also, probably
originally black, though now available in your choice of colors, including
camo for that jungle look.  It's not the same as present duct/k tape, I
just fell into this discussion cuz my dad told me that gaffer's tape was
'the origin(al)' of duct/k tape.

I bet that GI duck tape was not shiny silver; as I understand it, that was
a post-war change made when it migrated to HVAC/ductwork-sealing
applications.  Perhaps the original GI duck tape was OD?  Would match ammo
cases, and lots of other GI stuff, and not make such a good target.

Hey, this tape stuff gets around, mutates, morphs, levitates...
gaffer's tape in addition to being the premium, most expensive stuff, is
artsy, for theater people, musicians, poets, sculptors,  'gaffic' artists.

Michael McKernan