Gathered End Hammock Shape to Reduce Calf Ridge?

**james_e84** · 03-15-2017, 14:41

I recently made a simple 11.5 ft hammock from 1.9 ripstop nylon. It has simple rolled hemmed channels, whipped through the channels, and continuous loops larksheaded behind the knot. Its comfy, but I have noticed some calf ridge. I have reworked the ends using a sheet bend to add a little more length to the center of the hammock which has helped somewhat. I have also worked with ridgeline length.

If I were to trim the hammock body like this before hemming, would it help?

sketch.jpg

**berk** · 03-15-2017, 15:01

I've wondered the same! Subscribing..

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**geneaut** · 03-15-2017, 15:46

Look for some of the hammocks a user here called Snowball has made over the last few years. He has tried out a number of different configurations for end cuts to help with calf ridge, side tightness, etc.

Here are a few:
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...oot-end-curves
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...-shape-hammock
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...k-head-end-mod

**james_e84** · 03-16-2017, 06:52

Thanks, I've been doing a lot more reading.

**knightshade** · 09-29-2017, 19:18

I just made my first DIY hammock, and was wondering the same.

Will read over the limked threads. Thanks!

**leiavoia** · 09-29-2017, 22:51

I'm in the middle of methodically testing about a dozen gathered end geometric variations. I will post a big article if/when i'm done.

In the meantime I can say that "good ol' rectangle" seems to be winning. Convex ends create a cocoon and concave ends turn you into an airplane and flip you out of the hammock.

**Spiguyver** · 09-29-2017, 22:53

Originally Posted by leiavoia

I'm in the middle of methodically testing about a dozen gathered end geometric variations. I will post a big article if/when i'm done.

In the meantime I can say that "good ol' rectangle" seems to be winning. Convex ends create a cocoon and concave ends turn you into an airplane and flip you out of the hammock.

I can't wait to see your article. I was thinking about exactly what you're doing this morning on my drive to work. Awesome!

**knightshade** · 09-30-2017, 18:18

Originally Posted by leiavoia

I'm in the middle of methodically testing about a dozen gathered end geometric variations. I will post a big article if/when i'm done.

In the meantime I can say that "good ol' rectangle" seems to be winning. Convex ends create a cocoon and concave ends turn you into an airplane and flip you out of the hammock.

Looking forward to that....
I had wondered about convex...
From the reading I had done, a rectangular head and slightly convex foot end seemed to be a shape that was repeatedly liked by folks. (Somewhere in the 1.5 to 3" rang e for the depth of curve )

**hangnout** · 10-01-2017, 09:22

There was a lot of work with this in the early years of this forum. Research will show what didn't work and save time getting to something new. TZBrown? came up with a design that allowed a shorter hammock without calf ridge. In the end the Warbonnet style gathered end had the best results. It is easy to use the whipping style ends to play with different ideas before spending time and materials to test a design.

**wa4chq** · 10-01-2017, 10:25

HI james_e84. My first hammock was a diy gathered end, about 10.5". It was comfortable but still being new at it, I was finding a little discomfort with the dreaded calf-ridge. I tried various things like a mini spreader-bar on the foot end (made from pvc), I pulled the CL and whipped the ends, I removed the whippings and went back to gathering.... I bought more ripstop and made a parallelogram shaped hammock with whipped ends....then I tried it with just the foot end whipped, then gathered both..... This hammock ended up being shorter than I hoped but it is comfortable (when whipped) Problem I did find was my DIY Fronkey style bugnet didn't fit...the whippings took up valuable real estate and put too much stress on the netting. I built if for the first DIY gathered....

Now I did all of this over a span of a couple of years. In the mean time, I found that just messing with the RL does a good job and using the hammock you end up finding the sweet spot... laying fig-4 or something under the knees helps.....

I'm no expert. But my suggestion and it isn't my own, is to buy some cheap material and play around with different shapes and sizes......that's the best way to find out what works for you. Good Luck.