duck tape? gaffers/gaffer tape?

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 26, 2005, at 11:23 AM, sagehen wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: duck tape? gaffers/gaffer tape?
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> Wilson Gray had written:
>>
>>>> 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...
>>
>> and Dave Wilton wrote:
>>
>>> The infomercial was right. Gaffer's tape is electrician's tape and
>>> quite
>>> different from duct tape. A gaffer is an electrician (not a set
>>> builder as
>>> previously stated on this thread).
>>
>> My understanding is that although gaffers are electricians and
>> therefore
>> gaffer's tape would thus fall into the category of electrician's tape,
>> it's not what's commonly thought of as electrical tape, the stretchy
>> black insulating stuff long used by thrill-seekers to mend worn
>> insulation on power cords and help prevent wires which have been
>> joined
>> by twisting together from electrocuting them. Gaffer's tape is rather
>> like duct tape with the strippability of good masking tape, neither
>> lifting underlying paint nor leaving adhesive residue when removed.
>>
>> 3M has some good information on electrical tape:
>>
>> http://www.3m.com/market/electrical/elpd/index.jhtml
>>
>> with a sample variety here:
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/8axoo
>>
>> They have a .pdf brochure of what they call electrical tapes but which
>> actually appear to be all the tapes they list in their electrical
>> supplies catalog; i.e., all the tapes an electrician might want to
>> have
>> on hand:
>>
>> http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebserver.dyn?
>> uuuuuucAMFIuO8Vug8VuuugPOePZJB
>> S0-
>>
>> It includes both vinyl electrical tape and gaffer's tape, but the
>> former
>> is allotted its own category and the latter is included with box
>> sealing, filament, and masking tape in a section devoted to packaging
>> tapes. Here's their description of it:
>>
>> Highland 6910 Cloth Gaffers Tape coated cloth tape. High tack, easy
>> tear
>> 13.7 mil 2’Äù x 60 yd. Sealing and holding where minimum light
>> reflection
>> and glare are required.
>>
>> (end quote)
>>
>> In my admittedly limited experience, classic electrical tape (the
>> black
>> stretchy stuff) is neither high tack nor easy to tear.
>>

When I was a kid, we used to use it to re-cover a baseball after the
original horsehide had given up the ghost. It was just barely tacky
enough to do the job.

>> See also:
>>
>> http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000163.php
>>
>> for more on the virtues of gaffer's tape.
>>
>> John
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~
> I haven't looked for it lately, but there used to be a type of tape
> suitable for insulating wires and doing many other useful jobs
> (binding up
> the hafts of tools, e.g.) called


> "friction tape."

Yes! I've been trying to recall the name of that stuff since yesterday.

> It was black, cloth,
> self-adhesive, slightly sticky on the upper surface, dull, coarse and
> easy
> to tear off the roll and to lift off itself or other surfaces. It was
> definitely an electrician's tape.
> A. Murie
>

I, too, remember it as being exactly as you describe it.

-Wilson