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

[Paprika bohlmann]

What is the advantage to the naval clew over dogbones?

Its more organized, the nettles are easy to manage, one long line instead of many little ones. I think that may be it. I think if you're OCD the doggones would drive you insane while the naval clew would ease your nerves.

[Paprika bohlmann]

The Handy Hundred: If you purchased it online you could buy a 1000feet of the 1.4mm (140lb) for $42. Thats an awesome price for a rope that can be used for a tarp, tarp ridge line, tie outs, clews, clothes line, tying up a friend and leaving them on a train track, etc. They also have a wide selection of colors!

http://rwrope.com/outdoors-sporting-...-cord-509.html

[Paprika bohlmann]

I wanted to play around with how the binding rope (attaches the nettles to the hammock body and I'm not sure what it is really called) length affects comfort. I want to answer the question, "how short can the rope be without negatively affecting comfort?" Also, my first one was a little rough looking and this is much more refined.

Here is a UCR binding rope with adjustable brummels:


IMG_6541 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr


IMG_9530 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr

[Paprika bohlmann]

After discovering that 12 inch nettles were still comfortable I wanted to see what the hammock felt like without the binding rope. I found out I disliked how it affected the hammock. It caused the center areas, where the nettle attaches to the hammock body, to have many little spots where tension was focused and other areas with less tension. I gather from this that the rope helps to evenly distribute the tension in the hammock by not allowing the nettles focus where weight is being distributed in the hammock body. Sailors new what they were doing!


IMG_0898 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr

Shorter binding rope:

I shortened the binding rope to 40 inches and this did not have a negative affect on the hammock. Another positive attribute is that the ends of the rope didn't pull out as far as the longer binding rope tended to do.

Next I'll try a 30'' long rope and see how that affects comfort.

Micro soft shackle:

In order to more easily play around with the nettles I needed a ring that could open and close. I didn't have any carabiners that could support human weight and I didn't want to buy any. I had amsteal sitting around so I made the smallest soft shackle that could work. It ended up being a little smaller than I wanted, but it still worked. I only made one, leaving one side of the hammock with the metal ring, and didn't notice a a big difference between the two.


IMG_0899 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr

I still prefer the naval clew, because each time I take down the hammock I have to take a few extra steps to make sure my lines are where they should be. I'm sure if I had the dog bone nettles then this wouldn't be as bad. Order is sanity!

[Paprika bohlmann]

One further thing I forgot to mention. When I attached the nettles directly to the hammock the little variations, were talking less than a 1/4 of an inch with a few about a 1/4 of an inch over 12 inches, in the nettles length became apparent. With the rope those small differences difference disappeared.

[dirtwheels]

I've been called other less kind words for OCD, and that tendency makes me shudder at the possibility of having to untangle the clew. The idea of NEVER being concerned about tangles is what attracts me to the dogbones. Knowing all I need to do to cure any tangle is to detach a biner or whoopie is the only thing that makes having cordage supporting a hammock like that. Those fixed clews seem so primitive in comparison, but I'm a utilitarian guy.

Its more organized, the nettles are easy to manage, one long line instead of many little ones. I think that may be it. I think if your OCD the doggones would drive you insane while the naval clew would easy your nerves.

[Paprika bohlmann]

Dirt wheels- sorry if I offended you, wasn't my intention. Further, I should proof read before posting. The dog bones you use are a great option, and once I buy line that can be spliced I will try them out.
A naval clew is also a great option if you use rope that can't be spliced, and or would rather have your nettles in a fixed position. They really do help to keep the nettles in order and that can help make it less necessary to untangle lines. Further, I would suspect that the clew was developed for utilitarian purposes as well. It doesn't get more utilitarian than one piece of rope weaved together and tied! Finally, I wouldn't say that the navy clew is primitive, but rather that it addresses issues differently than the detachable bog bones.

I'm sure we could go back and forth on the differences between the two options, but I would rather see both options explored and further developed. I am curious to know how the holes that you burned into the hammock channels have held up? I'm considering doing something similar and would like some advice before I potentially ruin a hammock.

[dirtwheels]

Absolutely no offense taken here. I haven't tried the burning trick yet, just sharing a tip posted by WV. HYOH as they say 'round here. It will be later this year before I have the time to get on my DIY hammock experiment.

Dirt wheels- sorry if I offended you, wasn't my intention. Further, I should proof read before posting. The dog bones you use are a great option, and once I buy line that can be spliced I will try them out.
A naval clew is also a great option if you use rope that can't be spliced, and or would rather have your nettles in a fixed position. They really do help to keep the nettles in order and that can help make it less necessary to untangle lines. Further, I would suspect that the clew was developed for utilitarian purposes as well. It doesn't get more utilitarian than one piece of rope weaved together and tied! Finally, I wouldn't say that the navy clew is primitive, but rather that it addresses issues differently than the detachable bog bones.

I'm sure we could go back and forth on the differences between the two options, but I would rather see both options explored and further developed. I am curious to know how the holes that you burned into the hammock channels have held up? I'm considering doing something similar and would like some advice before I potentially ruin a hammock.

[Paprika bohlmann]

I'll post a photo soon, but I took my hammock and threaded a 3/8 natural rope from home depot through my hammock and attached the nettles to it. It is amazing what a thicker rope will do to make it even more comfortable. Not the most backpacking friendly, but for home or even site camping well worth it.

I was given an eno hammock to adapt to use with clews. I keep forgetting to borrow a hot knife, but once I do remember to bring it home I'll share the results of modding pre made hammocks.

[Paprika bohlmann]

Here are the photo's I promised in the previous post. It was mighty comfortable and mighty weird looking too. I think next time I will try using the 3/8 twisted poly rope.

photo 3 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr


photo 2 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr

photo 1 by bohlmann.eric, on Flickr