Asymmetrical hammock patterns?

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HuBBa

Forager
May 19, 2005
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Borås, Sweden
www.hubbatheman.com
Heya all! =)

I'm going to make my own hammock and wanted to try my hands on a asymmetrical shape similar to the hennesey's. But how do they work? Are there any images of one not strung up or even a sketch of how they are set up out there? I have searched and googled but found nothing.

Anything would he helpful :)
 
Bet there'll belots of Henessey's at MM moot for you to check out. If you can't make it I'll be pinching the Mrs camera (nice & powerful takes lots of pics in one go, 4MP), don't think she is best pleased about it mind you but I'll gladly grab a few shots of a few hennessey's if you want.

M
 
The asym design of the hennessy is actually simpler than it looks. It's just the side tieouts: in the older hennessys they were level (making a diamond shaped hammock). But in the HH asyms, the tieouts have just been moved about a foot either direction.
So rather than both tieouts being halfway along the hammock, one of them is about a foot towards the head end, and the other a foot towards the tail end of the hammock. when you peg these out, you get the asym shape.
If you wanted to make a hammock, look at www.imrisk.com where you can learn to 'whip' the ends of the hammock, then you could sew in tieouts etc.
Hmm, reading back over my response I'm not sure if it makes any sense, please let me know if it doesn't...
 
wentworth said:
If you wanted to make a hammock, look at www.imrisk.com where you can learn to 'whip' the ends of the hammock, then you could sew in tieouts etc.
Hmm, reading back over my response I'm not sure if it makes any sense, please let me know if it doesn't...

Wentworth,
That site is brilliant, I've been reading it for the past few hours. Thanks for the heads-up. I recon I'll be up for making a hammock myself pretty soon ;)

ATB

Ogri the trog
 
ok. so if i have understood, this is basically the shape of a asymmetrical hammock:

hammock1.jpg


This will then create two "flaps" on the side when it's strung up:

hammock2.jpg


And these flaps is then strung out creating a flatter & more comfortable sleeping area:

hammock3.jpg


Have i understood this right? And if not, where did i go wrong =)
 
Hi Hubba,
Basically, the hammock is a large rectangle of nylon, which is folded in half, then folded like a fan at each end and tied off, as can be seen on the imrisk.com site. The asym is just an illusion fo the tieouts, as I read on the HH site somewhere.
The rectangle doesn't have to be attached at the corners (as the asym name would imply!)
Wentworth
 
Thanx everyone for the kind help. I think i've sorted it out now and actually made a small hammock for my feet (good thing i don't have a gf/wife ;) out of a bathing towel and some string just to try it out.

On the images i did it wasn't really meant for the corners to be strung up, it should have a "sliding" function that bunches up the ends but i guess i drew it a bit poorly. Also the side flaps isn't actually corners, but rather a pocket created by the offset & asymmetrical shape.

Well, i'm about to order some fabrics from Pointnorth and see what i can do :) Have some pretty neat ideas i want to try :)
 
Hubba,
I hope this is not viewed as a thread hijack.
Has anyone made their own hammock by using knots alone as the ends of the platform and knots to secure the tie-ropes/tapes?
I really fancy giving this project a go but I have a pathalogical fear that any sewing I do will not be up to the job (I'm on the wrong side of being very heavy!)
I know that materials will be strong enough (some sites offer hammocks for weight of up to 350 lb people so I'm confident that the material is OK. I just don't want to ruin purpose bought material by punching a few rows of fine holes in it - I'm much more trusting of my skills in knotwork than needlework.

Any tips before I make some grand mistake?

TIA

Ogri the trog
 
Hi Ogri,
I made a hammock out of a Speer kit, which involves hemming the rectangle of nylon, then tying knots in each end. Don't worry, they will hold! and when you get in the hammock it makes the knots tighter.
I then sewed the webbing straps to it themselves as close to the hammock knot as I could. To get the snuggest fit, twist the hammock fabric like you might a towel, which makes it smaller, then sew the straps around it (not directly to the hammock fabric). when you lie in the hammock, the strap will pull securely against the knot.
Once again I'm not sure if that made sense...
 
Thanx All,
Hemming an edge I think I might be able to cope with and the rest of it will be overhand knots and loops in webbing which I'll tie with standard tape knots.
I've been looking more thoroughly at what materials I think I'll need (here comes the crunch)....
.. I'm a bit on the larger side, over 100 kilo's, in fact over 120 :eek:
...one site I saw this morning reccommended using cordura as a material for the hammock. So in looking for a material supplier on-line, the cat landed firmly amongst the pigeons when "Cordura" is also described as being sold by "Dernier" weight :confused: 1000, 500, 300 and ripstop.
Can anyone offer any assistance as to what I'll need to actually buy, other than needing about 9 feet/3 meters of full width (60 inch) of it, along with some polypropelene webbing for the tie straps

I was going to PM Toddy but I've bothered her directly for too much information recently and hope someone else can offer any thoughts.

TIA

Ogri the trog
 
Welcome to the club Ogri :) Faced with the same issue and allthough cordura is superstrong, it's also superexpensive. So i'm going to see first how "weak" normal rip-cord nylon really is. And even if you did dual layer rip-cord nylon, it would still be cheaper than cordura.

So im thinking it might better with a little more weight to the hammock than going towards a 2-3 times more expensive fabric. My own first experiment will actually be single layered rip-cord breathable nylon.
 
Hi Ogri,
I'd email Ed Speer of www.hammockcamping.com. He knows a huge amount about the materials and could recommend something. Ed's a pleasure to correspond with, even if you're not buying from him.
Also, you could join the yahoo hammock camping group, there's a huge amount of experience there.
If you're about 120kg, maybe going for 2inch polypro straps would be best. And if you didn't want to use cordura, I would think a double layer of 1.9 oz nylon would do... better check with Ed though.
 
Cheers Wentworth,
Just had another look at Ed's site and the prices for a make you own kit are pretty favourable. I'll Email him just to confirm, but I'm still nervous of the sewing thing.
I must be honest and admit that I thought a tie-together hammock would be a faster result (assuming I could source the materials locally or over the net) than having to spend time measuring, cutting and stitching. I don't doubt that the winter will be upon us before I get the chance to use it anyway, so I guess it'll turn into yet another winter project and be ready for next summer.

Thanks for your help and prompt replies.

Ogri the trog
 
Speer's kits are already cut to size, although it would be cheaper to source the materials yourself. Or you could just make up Risk's test hammock, which has no sewing at all! (I'm sure you've already been looking at that one :D )
 
my wife made a hammock out of a piece of linen just folded over & sewn at both ends to accept a stick/batten, readily available in all woodland! The most important thing was that the material was wide enough to start with so when the stick/batten was slid into the pocket it was gathered (approx 5' wide material on a 3' batten). We drilled holes for rope but you could make grooves for paracord. This is 8' long and v comfy and holds both of us (i'm 15 stone :rolleyes:!!) Perhaps linen is not the lightest of materials but it is natural, folds up well and is strong.
 

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