Homemade hammock

[wanderinstar]

I fancy making my own hammock. Any ideas on materials to use? Also plans or drawings would be helpful.
Where the rope or webbing attatches to hammock, if it just loops through end of hammock wont it tend to pull hammock together. Whereas if a piece of wood or something was placed in end it would tend to hold hammock open. Hope someone can understand what I,m trying to say.
Ian.

 

[Ogri the trog]

Ian,
There has been quite a bit of discussion about this subject in the recent past, try :-
www.imrisk.com
hammockwiki etc, or a search for homemade hammocks, there's plenty to keep you occupied for ages.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[HuBBa]

A word on using a bar instead of a looped solution. You can actually make one out in the field quite easily by just sliding a branch or any other bar-like thingemabob you can find/make. The load will still be on the actual loop, but it will now not bunch up as much. The advantage of doing it in the field? You don't have to carry the sticks with ya

 

[innocent bystander]

Could raise the centre of gravity and make it wobbly couldn't it ? (using a bar i mean )...

 

[Moonraker]

Neil1 did a very nice illustrated guide to making a Thai hammock here on BCUK. Page is here:

http://www.bushcraftuk.co.uk/200/thai_hammock.html

 

[HuBBa]

Could raise the centre of gravity and make it wobbly couldn't it ? (using a bar i mean )...

Yepp. the tipping factor is probably higher (it depends a little on how the rest of the construction of the hammock is done).

Its all in experimenting and trying out how it feels/works. Oh.. and do it over soft ground

 

[leon-1]

The old military hammock had stretcher bars, it was effectively a flat nylon sheet that was taught with sashes, virtually ideal as a catapult, which I recall it doing to people all the time .

Most of the new type hammocks do wrap around you, but they do not compress you (they are not like some giant constrictor), they are more like a coccoon of material which is slightly open on one side.

Thai hammocks give you the option of lying inside it so that it wraps around or lying on top of it so that you have one open side and two layers beneath which you can place a therma-rest inbetween.

 

[HuBBa]

Hm.. isn't the thai hammock design actually that you use a folded seam and uses two cords for the load, rather than using several. The difference in loadbearing also means that the thai hammock bunches up better because of this (forming the cocoon) rather than say a Brazilian design where you use several connection points for the loadpoint.

The double layered version is just one variant. There are single layer hammocks that uses the thai style aswell.

And having said that, i have seen the brazilian style in thailand aswell

there is a difference in how they fold around you however.

 

[leon-1]

I can't tell you the ins and outs of every different hammock, I don't know them all , But I have been using the Thai hammock design now for well over ten years and am more than happy with the way they work.

I don't like commenting on bits that I don't use, so I won't

 

[HuBBa]

oh don't get me wrong Leon. I use a thai style hammock aswell and love it. It's a simple and effective design and even a numbnut like me managed to make one

 

[Neil1]

The beauty of the thai hammock is there simplicity, very little to go wrong, a design you can't fall out of and the most comfortable nights sleep you have ever had.
Leon1 introduced me to them years ago, the guys that introduced him to them lived by the KISS rule and I'm sure probably tested everything else on the market, that was good enough for me.
Neil

 

[HuBBa]

Couldn't agree with you more. Simple to make, simple to set up and you can even make one without sewing =)