Looking for real Gaffer's tape

[Dagger Claws]

I'm interested in buying some black gaffer's tape, but I'm a little hesitant to purchase from a company. For those of you who may not know, gaffer's tape is a cloth type tape, like duct tape, which is plastic type. It's called gaffer's tape because gaffers, technichians who hang and design lighting for theatres, television, and film, use it to wrap around cords. What makes it good is that it can be stuck to anything and can be removed with relative ease. Over the summer, I interned with a company that used in in a variety of ways, from covering a puppet's control rod with black tape to make it invisible to the audience to using it as cloth "dutch" hinges for scenery pieces so they would fold and pack flat. I'd like to buy some, but I've seen two types, one that is actual cloth gaffer's tape (the kind I want) and a plastic backed gaffers tape (the kind I've been told is in more popular use with gaffers and the kind I do not want).

Does anyone out there know what kind I'm talking about and if there are any companies that still sell this type of tape?

 

[Buck-Beaver]

You should be able to purchase gaffer's tape locally from any place that sells or rents technical equipment for theatre or film & television. Check your local Yellow Pages - most major urban areas have at least one of these types of places. Failing that, contact the technical director of a local theatre and they can probably tell you were to find it.