As some of you might know. I built and tested several cuben fiber hammocks over the last few months. I love how cuben fiber hammocks lay (flat) and felt like it was the perfect hammock material. I had even planned to offer them for sale in the future.

I however have decided to abandon this idea after a hammock failed while being used by a beta tester last weekend. The tester was moving around in the hammock after spending a night in it when it failed. Luckily he was only 12" off soft ground and was un-injured. The hammock was built using CT2K.08 which is a .75oz a yard material and has a break strength of 105lbs/inch.

The beta tester was testing the difference between the channel end and the gathered end. The failure took place 18" down from the gathered end which signifies this was a material issue and not a manufacturing issue. At first I thought it might have to do with how the end was "gathered" but after seeing pictures of the failure I realized that a failure like this could occur with a channel end as well.

I sent the hammock to a Materials Engineer and a Materials Scientist and they concluded that the CT2K.08 might not be an appropriate material since prolonged overloading could cause a failure. They suggested that I use a heavier/stronger material but due to the nature of the material this would not guarantee anything.

We are all fascinated by this awesome material but I think it has limitations and one of those limitations is being used as a hammock.

I am not going to discredit the use of the heavier material at this time because I cannot say whether a failure would or could occur. I just want to offer this post as a disclaimer. If you decide to build a cuben fiber hammock please use the hammock with care.

Here are some photos of the failure.