Making Clews, their jigs, and making a camping hammock.

[Paprika bohlmann]

Lets try that again with larger photos

photo 3 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr

photo 2 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr

photo 1 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr

[lijn]

Much better :-)

[WhollyHamaca]

I agree that clews can make a big difference, and I'm impressed with your experiments and documentation. I'm planning to make an indoor-only, every-night hammock to replace my old Brazilian. It will be 68" wide with 30" long clews, 36 loops of #18 mason line per clew, and much thinner binding cord than your heavy rope. I'll put a few rows of twill tape in the nettles to mitigate tangling.

I have a question about determining nettle lengths. I understand why your very short 10" clews needed different lengths of nettles to get the tensions right across the weighted hammock. Would that still be necessary for much longer clews such as I want, or do the differences become negligible with a long clew, so that all the nettles could be the same length? With more (or thicker) cords, the wider sword mat might take up enough length on the outer cords as the weaving progressing from outsides to center?

I don't know the optimal curve the ends should have, so I don't know how to calculate the different nettle lengths for a given clew length and hammock width. My old Brazilian hammock had long woven clews. It's in hammock heaven now, so I can't just measure the length of each of the nettles.

I'd very much appreciate any advice, or if anybody with a "real" Brazilian will measure and share the variation in nettle lengths. Thanks!

[Paprika bohlmann]

WhollyHamaca- Your clews can all be the same length. If you wanted to play around with the end nettles, I would recommend playing that the outside two on both the left and right side of each nettle, I guess you could tie knots in the nettles and see what that does. I haven't tried doing that myself and I haven't used mason line so I'm not sure if line failure would be issue, but with 36 loops I don't think it would a serious issue.

I have often wondered how really long nettles would affect the hammock. I am sure there is a point where their length would no longer have a significant effect, but I don't where that would be. Since it will be hung indoors and won't be taken down often I suppose a person could make them pretty darn long and get a very comfortable hammock and not have to suffer tangled nettles.

Sorry it took so long to respond. I moved, started a new job, and we had our second child. I was recently given a grand trunk single and I am planning on converting it to accept a set of clews. I plan on melting holes, I'll use a hot knife, into the end channels and see how it holds up. With the wife and kids taking a road trip back to the midwest I will have time to get back to my hammock hobbies.

[WhollyHamaca]

Hi, Paprika, Thank you for the informative reply. I really appreciate it, especially since you must be incredibly busy with so much change in your life. Big congrats on your new child, and the new job!

I'm still working on my "long clews" hammock, hoping to replicate my old Brazilian. I'm using a nominally 9 x 12 ft all-cotton canvas tarp that I've folded in half to put a blanket between the layers in winter. After laundering, the fabric feels strong yet soft, hangs well even doubled, but it shrank a lot so after folding it's 66" x 90". I've almost finished sewing 33 buttonholes in each end, just below the narrow pre-hemmed edges. I'm nearly ready to start on the clews, so your reply is perfectly timed!

I'm sure you're right that there's a practical limit of noticeable benefit as nettles get longer, and that for long clews the nettles should all be the same length. For this one I'm going with 36" nettles, or little over 1/2 the width of the hammock, so the hammock ends can open to full width in principle if not in actual use. I think this is just past the theoretical max effective clew length and probably about twice as long as the functional optimal length, but for this project I'm not concerned about minimizing cordage materials or pack weight.

I'm making long clews because of my short fabric length and for aesthetics. For a bedroom hammock I like the traditional look of long woven-end clews on a cotton hammock. A 14-ft total hammock length should be just about right for 45* sag across a 10-ft span. I have 90" long fabric + (36" x 2 clews) = 162" or 13.5 ft. With 2 welded end rings and 2 biners to attach rings to pad eyes it's just about 14 ft. I can add short suspension cords between the rings and biners. I may make the clews a little shorter since the mason line will stretch.

I'm not too nervous about using mason line for the nettles although I know it's not ideal. I'll have 33 loops = 66 cords per clew. I'll also double the last 3 loops at each corner, so that's 39 loops (78 cords) per clew. Somehow I doubt the old-time hammock-makers had access to high-tech materials, so I'm guessing mason line will work as well as the traditional twisted cotton or hemp cords of about the same diameter, and probably stronger than the canvas. Still, I'll test it gently over a pad. I have 1000 ft of mason line on hand and need to keep costs down.

I thought about cutting, melting, and knotting each loop separately, rather than a continuous length for all 39 loops. Separate loops are safer if the cord should fail, but 39 knots per clew are too fiddly for my arthritic hands so we'll see how this goes. I'll do as you suggest and knot a few of the end-most loops separately to adjust if needed and since I think those loops are more likely to fail than the rest.

I hope your Grand Trunk mod with clews comes out well. A hot knife will make short work of the holes. Much faster than sewing and slitting buttonholes!

Thanks again for your experiments and advice! When get my hammock finished I'll post my results here. We had some flood damage to our community garden yesterday, so most everything else is on hold for a few days while we rescue and restore what we can.

[dirtwheels]

Sounds like a great plan! Look forward to seeing pics and a report of the finished product.

Hi, Paprika, Thank you for the informative reply. I really appreciate it, especially since you must be incredibly busy with so much change in your life. Big congrats on your new child, and the new job!

I'm still working on my "long clews" hammock, hoping to replicate my old Brazilian. I'm using a nominally 9 x 12 ft all-cotton canvas tarp that I've folded in half to put a blanket between the layers in winter. After laundering, the fabric feels strong yet soft, hangs well even doubled, but it shrank a lot so after folding it's 66" x 90". I've almost finished sewing 33 buttonholes in each end, just below the narrow pre-hemmed edges. I'm nearly ready to start on the clews, so your reply is perfectly timed!

I'm sure you're right that there's a practical limit of noticeable benefit as nettles get longer, and that for long clews the nettles should all be the same length. For this one I'm going with 36" nettles, or little over 1/2 the width of the hammock, so the hammock ends can open to full width in principle if not in actual use. I think this is just past the theoretical max effective clew length and probably about twice as long as the functional optimal length, but for this project I'm not concerned about minimizing cordage materials or pack weight.

I'm making long clews because of my short fabric length and for aesthetics. For a bedroom hammock I like the traditional look of long woven-end clews on a cotton hammock. A 14-ft total hammock length should be just about right for 45* sag across a 10-ft span. I have 90" long fabric + (36" x 2 clews) = 162" or 13.5 ft. With 2 welded end rings and 2 biners to attach rings to pad eyes it's just about 14 ft. I can add short suspension cords between the rings and biners. I may make the clews a little shorter since the mason line will stretch.

I'm not too nervous about using mason line for the nettles although I know it's not ideal. I'll have 33 loops = 66 cords per clew. I'll also double the last 3 loops at each corner, so that's 39 loops (78 cords) per clew. Somehow I doubt the old-time hammock-makers had access to high-tech materials, so I'm guessing mason line will work as well as the traditional twisted cotton or hemp cords of about the same diameter, and probably stronger than the canvas. Still, I'll test it gently over a pad. I have 1000 ft of mason line on hand and need to keep costs down.

I thought about cutting, melting, and knotting each loop separately, rather than a continuous length for all 39 loops. Separate loops are safer if the cord should fail, but 39 knots per clew are too fiddly for my arthritic hands so we'll see how this goes. I'll do as you suggest and knot a few of the end-most loops separately to adjust if needed and since I think those loops are more likely to fail than the rest.

I hope your Grand Trunk mod with clews comes out well. A hot knife will make short work of the holes. Much faster than sewing and slitting buttonholes!

Thanks again for your experiments and advice! When get my hammock finished I'll post my results here. We had some flood damage to our community garden yesterday, so most everything else is on hold for a few days while we rescue and restore what we can.

[dejoha]

I really enjoyed reading this post and seeing the experimentation. That old Navy design is pretty ingenious.

[brazilianguy]

I love my Brazilian hammock for its comfort. I haven't found any gathered end that gives the same amount of comfort, mainly because the fabric gets bundles up at the top ends. These experimentations are awesome.

I'm wondering if you have seen this hammock http://www.amazon.com/Byer-of-Maine-.../dp/B00092M246 and here's a youtube of it. Unfortunately they have discontinued to make this hammock.

I have one, and the lay is the closest I get to a Brazilian hammock. There are no rings, the rope is used to form a loop the same way in a Brazilian. I can take some pictures and measurements if anyone would like.