Gourt Home::Gourt :: Gaffer tape
Gaffer tape (also, gaffer's tape, gaffa tape, gaff tape, gaffing tape, or cloth tape) is a tough, fabric backed adhesive tape used in the motion picture, television, stage (music and theater) and other entertainment industries, and elsewhere. The tape is manufactured in many colours, including fluorescent and custom colours, but the most common varieties include matte black, since this blends in with the typical stage floor of a theatre, red tape for obvious warnings or as staging marks for the blocking of actors or camera, and white tape which can be used imperceptibly to an audience or camera on lighter surfaces or as visible marks on darker ones as well as often being used to seal cans of unexposed film such as short ends. Although the tape is difficult to break by pulling, it is easily torn by hand along either axis and leaves little to no residue when removed, though it will remove patches of some paints from the surface of drywall. When cables are taped down on a stage or other surface, either for safety or to keep them out of view of the audience or camera, they are said to be gaffered or gaffed.
The tape is most likely named for the gaffer, the head of the lighting department on a film crew.
A 4" wide version, commonly known as Dutchman's tape, is also available. This name probably came from the common method of plastering two canvas flats together. As 2" gaffer tape is easier to deal with, it has become more commonly used. Electrics and Grips commonly carry one or more colors of 1" tape as part of their personal kit. Gaffer tape is manufactured in six-foot tubes which are then cut into narrower rolls for sale. This means that extra-wide gaffer up to (as an extreme example) six feet can be special-ordered, though it can be hard to pull the tape from very wide rolls.
The tape is commonly referred to within the British Army as 'black and nasty'.
In the US, duct tape, although a different material, is frequently used for similar purposes outside of the entertainment industry.
Gaffer tape should not be confused with camera tape, which comes in a similar range of sizes and colors but is a low adhesion paper tape.
See also
Gaffer Tape is also known as "Binding Tape" as many Library Binders will use it to finish off the binding on library books.
"Gaffer tape"