Regarding "W" whipping....

[wa4chq]

Hey RatDog...thanks again. I brought up the W-whipping because I was curious about if it provided support for my knees by the "pocket" it forms. I'm going to play around with it but did you notice the "pockets" on either side of the centerline JustJeff talked about? Thanks.

[Coheeba]

I have a short gathered end (about 9-9.5 feet) that I did a half W on, at least that's what I call it. I don't pull the middle all the way up to meet the edges, I just pull it up halfway. Then I pull out the edges just a little to give them a little tautness. I tried using Jeff's full W and I didn't like the way it laid. So I took it apart and tried several different attempt until I settle on halfway for the middle or a little less. This is perfect FOR ME. I'm a side sleeper and this allows me to side sleep very comfortably. It basically gives me a foot pocket and head pocket on each side.

[wa4chq]

Hey Coheeba....thanks for the info...sounds good. Maybe this weekend I can start testing the W-fold.

[Ratdog]

Hey RatDog...thanks again. I brought up the W-whipping because I was curious about if it provided support for my knees by the "pocket" it forms. I'm going to play around with it but did you notice the "pockets" on either side of the centerline JustJeff talked about? Thanks.

Yes you can create them. Not too difficult.

What I would do would be to start with a W fold, try pulling the middle up more, then try the pulling up one outside edge more. Use a sheet bend so it is easily undone and changed.

Then try the accordion fold using the same approach. Yeah it's a bit of fiddling but you can try a half dozen combinations and the changes only take a couple minutes.

When using the sheet bend, make sure you follow the diagram, if you do it wrong, the fabric will slip right through the continuous loops you've larks headed on.

I really only find it useful on the wider hammocks. Some of my folks insist on an accordion fold done a certain way as it really does help you dial in the fabric and the whole head left or head right thing.

I switched to a ball whip approach after having a sheet bend come loose. In fairness, it took 2 years for it to come loose and we noticed it before it gave way. Oh, and the hammock was used a swing, hammock, pirate ship, etc. So I'm pretty happy using them but once you have the fold dialed in, ball whip it. Keep in mind, the folding and sheet bend whip will use up a fair bit of fabric at either end.

[wa4chq]

Hey Ratdog...again, thanks for the info. It will be interesting to see how the W-fold feels compared to my other hammocks. My first one was long and gathered...end channel etc. I like it....later, I added the knotty mods to eliminate the side flop but if I did it again I wouldn't add KM up by shoulder. However, not an issue with this one because it's not a problem to remove. This is sorta why I went to a whipped end on my second hammock. Besides wanting to try it, I liked the fact that I could eliminate the knotty mod by adjusting the long ends. This hammock is shorter and is cut in the shape of a parallelogram. Now I'd like to try the W-fold. I'll use the longer hammock as the test since I really don't want to mess up the shorter one..... I don't think I'll have issues with the sheetbend during the testing stage and if I find I like the feel of the W-fold I'll remove the knotty-mods and then balance the whole thing out by gathering the head end accordion style and whip it good. If I find the W-fold is not what I hoped it to be, I'll just redo it gathering it like the head and finish off by whipping.

[wa4chq]

Yesterday afternoon, I went ahead and modified my cammy hammy using the W-fold on the foot end and a regular whipping on the head end. I had enough play in the KM's so I didn't remove them. I remeasured between the "knots", got a rough length for the SRL and attached it temporarily. I didn't really have enough time to do a proper test hang, maybe only 15 minutes but I did notice that I will have to make some changes to the W. I didn't really feel a "pocket" down by the legs. I even switched my laying position from my normal head right-feet left.....I'll have more time to play with it on the weekend. Just for the heck of it, I even removed the SRL. Doing that produced floppy sides big time. I will be interesting to see how adjusting the long ends in the whipping will effect the feel of the lay when not using a SRL. It's worth messing with just to see the results.... I'll even try half a SRL next...

[wa4chq]

UPDATE: I did some testing last Saturday. Originally I did the W-fold exactly like shown on Just Jeffs site. After laying in it I decided to make some adjustments. I was feeling that there really wasn't much in the way of a pocket as I thought there'd be on the side where my feet lay and I felt a pretty hard ridge down the center. Also, there was a lot of slack on the right side of the hammock. I loosened the West Country whipping and pulled more out of the right edge and I also pulled the "center" vee of the fold towards the head end of the hammock. Re-whipped and went to the head end and took some slack out of the right side as well. I found more of a pocket formed and the hard ridge wasn't as pronounced. I need to get a little more scientific with my testing....I need to make measurement and jot down some notes. I made some adjustments to the SRL not knowing the distance between knots, just looking at the sag and going form there......
Bottom line, this is a work in progress. I need to make some measurements, do more adjustments then do an overnighter. There's a good chance that I'll find that no matter what I end up going back to the regular whipped end but I won't know until I try. It's fun messing with this stuff!

[mountain_man_mike]

Being a tinkering maniac, I tried the "W" whip method along with the "fold it towards the center" then whip it method and found that using the W on one side and the fold to the center on the other side worked pretty well. I did the same on the opposite end so I had W whips on diagonal corners/sides and fold to the center on the other diagonal. It seemed to provide a natural foot box and shoulder box on opposite sides/ends. The thing is you are stuck with that until you whip them differently or flip the hammock over. It is an option and it might suit you if you like the lay.

[wa4chq]

Hey mountain_man_mike, thanks for the information! I will definitely give that a try. Nothing wrong with being TM... I'll let you know my results. Have a good one!

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