Woot! My kevlar arrived this morning!
I always thought kevlar was for fire retardent clothing and bullet proof vests. What would make it a good choice for a tree strap?
- Strong
- Lightweight
- Low stretch.
- UV degradation issues
- Highly fire retardent
The first three of those properties are reasons for its use in bulletproof clothing and in composite reinforcement, and also make it useful for tree-straps. It might need UV protection, which might eliminate any weight advantage, hence the need for testing. The fire resistance would be useful if some idiot or prankster decides to try and melt through my treestraps. Not so useful if they go for the amsteel instead. Or if the whole forest is burning.
http://www2.dupont.com/Kevlar/en_US/...ical_Guide.pdf
Last edited by genixia; 09-10-2014 at 15:26.
I haven't found anything yet about it being more abrasive. I would hope that the stitch patterns would eliminate movement that might cause abrasion to be a concern anyway. I suspect that it's going to be tough on the needle. I'm going to sew loops using the old favorite, tara, and see what happens.
I bought some small diameter Kevlar line for guying antennas in ham radio situations. The Kevlar had a sheath of nylon or polyester around it - something that was more UV resistant. So UV breakdown could be a issue if it is raw Kevlar (no cover).
Two tree huggers ready for testing. 41 grams for the pair. Material has a 2000lb rating, hopefully the stitching will hold up.
That's cruel
Nice straps!
I've seen pictures of kevlar rope being used as a friction saw, so it's definitely abrasive enough to do some damage if you're not very careful...from http://gearward.com/collections/fron...d-small-kevlar
CSC_Saw_2_grande.jpg
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