Hammocking Materials

[Zelph]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! And thank you Rapt for the great information on fabrics - very helpful. After reading some advice in other forums I took a little trip to Walmart last night and found some beautiful forest/pine green ripstop nylon in the $1 section. I grabbed all 6.75 yards of it up. Sadly it's only 48" wide, a bit short methinks for a hammock, but there's still plenty of other uses I can find for it. I'm almost certain it's DWR. I tried blowing through it and barely felt any breath coming through. I also did the water test over night and this morning about half of the water had found its way through the fabric into the bottle. This fabric seems really light - is there any way to determine if it is 1.1, or 1.9 without being able to weigh it?

I do have another question. Is polyester a good material for a hammock body? Last night I had also found some 60" OD green polyester in the dollar area and considered getting it too, but wanted to hold off until I knew I could put it to use somehow.

Thanks again for the help and I look forward to an exciting future of more DIY projects!

[headchange4u]

Polyester is a good material for making a hammock. It normally has a softer feel than nylon and is less prone to stretching.

[Rapt]

Polyester is also more UV resistant. So even though its often slightly weaker initially it'll maintain its strength longer/better if you use it outdoors.

(Thanks for the thanks guys!)

I still will say though that the sample route (even if you have to pay a few $) is a really good way to get practical knowledge about fabrics...

Another way is to go to outdoors stores and read spec sheets and fondle product...

FWIW most "outdoors fabrics" come in widths from 54"-64", more "home" or residential/clothing fabrics come narrower. (40"-48")

Avoid anything with cotton in it for outdoors "gear" fabrics. Its heavy, prone to holding moisture and won't last.