Cloth Maps.

[Ian]

I have just come across this article which I did a few years ago. It might be of use to the newer people who have not seen it before.
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I am the happy owner of a couple of WW2 prisoner escape maps printed on silk. I was thinking of how convenient they are and suddenly the penny dropped.

Off to the shops and bought a packet of T-Shirt transfer paper (I used Hewlett-Packard C6050A A4 T-Shirt Transfers).

Scan in map in A4

Print to transfer paper.

Iron transfer paper to old cotton handkerchief

Voila, a flexible map/handkerchief. Not exactly printed and only A4 but with a little skill obviously two or more may be transferred side by side. A little stiff but that goes with time and washing. Visual detail is very good. The transfer is supposed to withstand many, many cotton washes with detergent so it must wear well.

Will it last? I buried one in the potato patch about six inches down six months ago. Took it out and hosed it off. Perfect. I suppose the cotton will rot eventually. Perhaps it is possible to print on silk, I haven’t tried.

How about a unique headscarf for the wife with all the maps and routes necessary marked on it? Or even on a T-shirt or underpants for the BOB! Don’t forget double sided!
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Over to you.

[the-gnole]

I have just come across this article which I did a few years ago. It might be of use to the newer people who have not seen it before.
________________________
I am the happy owner of a couple of WW2 prisoner escape maps printed on silk. I was thinking of how convenient they are and suddenly the penny dropped.

Off to the shops and bought a packet of T-Shirt transfer paper (I used Hewlett-Packard C6050A A4 T-Shirt Transfers).

Scan in map in A4

Print to transfer paper.

Iron transfer paper to old cotton handkerchief

Voila, a flexible map/handkerchief. Not exactly printed and only A4 but with a little skill obviously two or more may be transferred side by side. A little stiff but that goes with time and washing. Visual detail is very good. The transfer is supposed to withstand many, many cotton washes with detergent so it must wear well.

Will it last? I buried one in the potato patch about six inches down six months ago. Took it out and hosed it off. Perfect. I suppose the cotton will rot eventually. Perhaps it is possible to print on silk, I haven’t tried.

How about a unique headscarf for the wife with all the maps and routes necessary marked on it? Or even on a T-shirt or underpants for the BOB! Don’t forget double sided!
________________________________________

Over to you.

Great idea Ian, I have a copy of Memory Map so can print out any area I want in either 1:50,000 or 1:25,000, with zoom facility as well, with a route planner/marker with flags it would make for easy mapping

So I could take a section like below

small town.png (156.97 KiB) Viewed 1587 times

And put just that bit I need on a shirt Excellent idea

[Carrot Cruncher]

Oi !!, shhhh.....no one needs a map of that area gnoley (ya missed me though )

We're all banjo plucking hill billies down here, think "Deliverence" crossed with the two ronnies ......... "we don't like strangers round 'ere"

Good idea about maps though Ian, is the map still in good condition ? I'm assuming that the burying bit was from the original article

[Ian]

Good idea about maps though Ian, is the map still in good condition ? I'm assuming that the burying bit was from the original article

Yes and yes. It has been a few years now and they are soft but perfectly legible.

[Carrot Cruncher]

I might look into that. I have always been a bit wary of the transfer type printing from when I used to get t-shirts with transfers on them as a young heavy metal fan , the image would usually start to crack up after a short period of time

[nickdutch]

How about a unique headscarf for the wife with all the maps and routes necessary marked on it? Or even on a T-shirt or underpants for the BOB! Don’t forget double sided!
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Over to you.

Taking my underpants off to work out where I am isn't even something that I did when I was a drunken youngster . . . . . LOL

[bulldogeagle]

We're all banjo plucking hill billies down here, think "Deliverence" crossed with the two ronnies .........

you speak for yourself, personally i've been called "the wild man of the woods", or sometimes "ZZ Top"!

[diamond lil]

But wouldn't you need a map to remind you where you'd buried the map?

[TomW]

It's a little bit but security wise I feel it would be better to have no personal markings on any map. A map with your bol marked on could easily find its way in to the wrong hands resulting in the loss of your stash. Post shtf it might lead others to you. Taken further you shouldn't even fold it to the bit your using, it narrows down the area considerably.

[the-gnole]

It's easy enough to work off track though, a dot is just a dot if you don't know what it is marking.

Have a watch of "Bat*21" with Gene Hackman and see how he plans his escape route from the jungle.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094712/plotsummary