Has anyone built a hammock out of linen? I'm thinking a heavy or canvas weight linen for my indoor hammock..
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Has anyone built a hammock out of linen? I'm thinking a heavy or canvas weight linen for my indoor hammock..
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Well, the improvement of manmade fibers over cotton is resistance to rot, and polyester is about 4 times stronger than linen fibers - so if your 2 lb polyester fabric hammock was replaced with linen you'd need an 8 lb sheet the same dimensions to maintain the same strength from what I'm finding out. Being an indoor hammock you might not have as much problems with getting wet and drying out causing failure.
All that being said - I've seen hammocks made from high thread count sheets for kids on youtube and I remember when I was younger you would see cotton hammocks people would use in the summer - and web hammocks which were cotton cordage were US Navy Issue before WW2.
I could see a linen or linen/silk blend being really comfortable. Not suitable for outdoors, but nice to hang in.
A blog post by the Snarky Nomad mad the case for linen with travel towels. I've had my eye out for a handkerchief that's 100% to hang on my pack.
A great source of linen (yippy can make that towel) is http://fabrics-store.com.
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"You", not "Yippy" darn phone
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A linen - or possibly hemp - hammock is on my to-do-list. If you stick with a heavier linen fabric, I don't see a reason why it shouldn't work. Linen is plenty strong and it feels nice - especially when it's hot. Most traditional hammocks like e.g. Brazilian hammocks are made from natural fibers. Nowadays mostly cotton. They are heavy but very comfortable. However, one other possible disadvantage of natural fibers is that they can stretch permanently where you lie most often. Some people like this - others don't. If you don't like that, take the strongest linen you can find.
I have 4 yards of linen on order, so we'll know soon. This is my first hammock, so I'll try not to mess it up.
We made heavy linen canvas hammocks from a 1716 British Navy design - hemp clews and thread grommets. With added stretchers (hard to describe - they were used on US navy hammocks as late as WW2, supposedly) They held some of the 250# guys in our unit. The rest of us didn't use stretchers and were more comfortable, to tell the truth. That was for reenacting/living history. You couldn't sleep on the diagonal in them, had to sleep banana shaped. The fabric was only 32" wide to start with.
I don't know what weight you ordered, but would be interested to hear how it comes out. Are you gathering and tying or putting in grommets and rope?
stickbow~~ how long were your "reenactor" hammocks... both fabric and overall?
I would take it that clewing the ends rather than gathering them is just like having longer fabric.... ??
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