You're Doing Underquilts All Wrong. Get A Clew ;-)

**wirelessness** · 06-02-2017, 21:10

Originally Posted by leiavoia

You can just whip the ends, yes. At this scale it's definitely much easier. But weaving gets you bonus points for style.

It seemed so much easier to use a western whipping knot. That's what I did. I modified it though to join the two ends of the whip with one square knot. With paracord I would be confident it wouldn't slip loose but with 1/16" elastic cord I just wasn't so sure.

**wirelessness** · 06-13-2017, 00:10

Originally Posted by wirelessness

It seemed so much easier to use a western whipping knot. That's what I did. I modified it though to join the two ends of the whip with one square knot. With paracord I would be confident it wouldn't slip loose but with 1/16" elastic cord I just wasn't so sure.

The next one I did with the weave and it was very easy. I also think the weave makes it easier to separate the strands in the proper order.

**Theguywitheyebrows** · 06-17-2017, 07:35

The whipping def makes the nettles easier to mix around, and thats a bear to undo when it happens. I sewed one square sleeping bag into a clewed uq, with some grosgrain that was a perimeter barrier as the anchor points (ugly, too big to hike in, but large and super warm; GRREEEAAAATTT lowcost solution for a uq with a bag from a thrift store or the like) and it worked great. On the gemini thread, a member used 5/8" double sided fabric tape and 5/8" ribbon to make the anchor points and he reported good results. I just converted a youth bag (came with a shoddy hammock, to be tied into the hammock to be weasled into and then stuck laying in the center, TERRRRIIIBLE design, decent bag) with the tape-and-ribbon method and my wife is sleeping in the hammock in the boys room as i type. Looks plenty warm to me! I set out to convert three bags, chopped and hemmed the hood off the first one and realized i could leave the hood and still use ribbon and it can still serve ground duty if needed. Off to convert the other two meaw. Preeeeetty tedious with the measuring and taping, but at $200+ a pop ill suffer through the back and finger pain to get these kids off the ground. Pictures to follow successful conversions.

**Mr.magoo** · 07-11-2017, 16:03

Hi.
Fast question.
I'm planing to retrofit my UQ with a clew.
Living in Europe I can order 1 mm (1/32 in) or 2mm (5/64 in) shock cord.
Which one do you think is better?
If 1 mm do I need more nettles?
This stuff is hard to come by in Sweden. (To a reasonable expense)
Greetings

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**sqidmark** · 07-11-2017, 17:09

I used 1/32 on mine and it has 16 nettles per end. It may be a bit of overkill but it works well. Also this is on a 3/4 so I think if I had gone with fewer nettles they would have been spaced pretty far apart. I wouldn't use clews on a 3/4 again. Search within this yuuge thread to see my earlier posts.

EDIT > At first I used 1/16 cord as shown below, later changing to 1/32 because I felt it didn't need so much tension. I used this many nettles in order to avoid the large puckers that many have.

**Theguywitheyebrows** · 07-11-2017, 17:34

I used 1/32 and 7 nettles on each end and it works great. The sticky double sided fabric tape failed however, and bought a kamsnap kit to refit the anchorpoints....a bear with all the knots and arthritis /:

**Lord_Kaos** · 07-11-2017, 17:45

I had a climashield 6 full length UQ made by Simply Light Designs, I had him put 10 - 3/8" grosgrain loops with mini triangle rings on each end, then I spent about 4 hours measuring, cutting, tying, and measuring again. I used 1/16" black shock cord and just hand tied each individual nettle, no weaving or whipping, and each end was 1.5" shorter than the other nettles. Used 2- 1" steel rings then I added a loop of paracord and a set of 1" brass rings, which allows me to adjust for different length hammocks, I slip the brass rings over my Cinch Bugs and straps, and they rest right up against the bugs, and it all hangs nice and solid!

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**Theguywitheyebrows** · 07-11-2017, 17:58

I thought it was gunna be too small, but it was fine. With my lil kam snap gun, i can bring the ribbon and the spool and add more if i need to. About to embark on a week long camping trip with 13yo male/female twins, a 10yo termite, a 31yo grown-up8yo (me), and a mom. Super excited. The mom and kids all have sleeping-bag converted UQs with clews, and im running the new river (unconverted). Pics to come after the fact, three weeks from now or so. Rebuilding the kids UQs this week

**Theguywitheyebrows** · 07-25-2017, 16:45

i built the three youth bag-to-clewed UQ conversions with the sticky tape and they failed, i had to kamsnap the ribbon in place with a pinch of the shell of the youth bags. just finished fixing the clews up for the last one, and they hang great. gotta make sure you leave room for and a method of adjustment if you plan on hanging longer than your nettles easily allow; these are set for the kids' current hammock setups, when those setups evolve to longer hammocks i have 1/8th shock cord to add 1.5'ish hunks on each end of each UQ for a knot to alter hang length.

sticky tape stuff = fail under pressure, difficult to sew through.

kamsnaps = GREAT solution