Different hammock design?

[Snowball]

A few questions
1. I am wondering if anybody have experience and perhaps made prototypes where wedges have been cut out and the fabric sewn together lengthwise? I have some perhaps crazy ideas in my head a kind of hybrid between a gathered end hammock and a bridge hammock without bars but no need to make mistakes already made.
2. What about cat cuts lengthwise on a normal gathered end hammock?

My ideas is to save weight and bulk if possible not to forget comfort. I am not a minimalist and comfort has a higher priority for me but no need to carrying the extra weight if it can be avoided. You may have a different point of view.
If you look at a hammock, how much of the fabric do we actually use? Some of fabric has a structural purpose but in some places it’s there because it is. Are we lazy when it comes to making hammocks? Take the ends of a normal gathered end hammock the wrinkles is fabric we don’t use. High edges, are we going to fall out if the edges where lower, I think not. A bridge hammock is most likely the design with the most effective use of fabric but then bars have been added. BB style hammocks offers a flatter lay but more fabric has been added and has high edges. Please don’t get me wrong no disrespect intended. Any design has its time and place and may be the best until replaced by something better. I just like to challenge things and invent stuff.

If you look at sails for sailboats years ago it was just a flat piece of cloths today they are designed and sewn in 3D. Development!
I am no Einstein and have made my share of mistakes and failed projects and I am sure more will come. I don’t know about you but I get inspiration from your projects and designs good or bad. Mistakes made mine or yours is something we can learn from.

Any ideas links pictures etc. will be appreciated.

[gargoyle]

http://www.treblehammocks.com/index.html

Takes more fabric (= more weight). Needs more trees/tieouts.

[Yojimbo]

There was a hammock maker who was using cat cut sides and reverse curve on the end Channels. All in an effort to cut out fabric flop and calf ridge. Can't recall who it was.

[Irishjihad]

Cat cuts on the side seem like a good idea, so long as you have a good stitch down the side to transfer the loads from the lengthwise fibers that are longer continuous.

[gmcttr]

There was a hammock maker who was using cat cut sides and reverse curve on the end Channels. All in an effort to cut out fabric flop and calf ridge. Can't recall who it was.

http://www.simplylightdesigns.com/ca...roducts_id/133

[Ramblinrev]

Take the ends of a normal gathered end hammock the wrinkles is fabric we don’t use. High edges, are we going to fall out if the edges where lower, I think not.

I see you are new to the forums and I don't know how much experience you have actually sleeping in hammocks. But the "wrinkles" in a gathered end serve a very functional purpose. They allow the fabric to spread out and provide the room for a good diagonal lie. That's not to say improvements can't be made, but what first looks like wasted fabric becomes vital tothe comfort of the lie. And in fact, lower sides may indeed provide the opportunity for us to fall out. I'v come close to that if I lie a certain way in a certain direction which lowers the sde wall. My feet will actually slip out over the sides if thewalls are not high enough. By all means, experiment. But before you begin to radically change a design make sure you understand why the design is the way it is to start with.

Check out the old time patents that we issued for hammocks decades ago.

Some of them were very innovative, but did not work for one reason or another.

[Just Bill]

I'm no expert, but my limited look at the "extra fabric" problem seemed to be better solved by some of the Asym hammocks- basically commit to laying diagonal to one side only and chop out some of the extra. Of course I may not understand that correctly...

I think maybe a 4'x9' body may be a better thing to try out first. Grand Trunk Nano and Hummingbird are two examples. Assuming that size was good- you could make one out of 1oz hyperD and have a 4.25oz hammock the size of your fist.

[Snowball]

As a kid many years ago I made a few hammocks in canvas and as I recall some of them had a flat lie but had other faults. None of them where traditional but all sewn into shape. Gave up hammocks then because I was cold and did not understand I needed insulation underneath. That was then and this is now. I do not have the same hang time as many of your guys for sure but there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Using more than two trees is not what I am looking for. It sets limitations where to setup camp.
I do lei diagonal and still there is wrinkles but mostly on the side not used. You do not see wrinkles in a sail because its sewn in shape. The forces in a sail is a bit different because pressure is applied on the whole surface (wind) and we only have our body and gravity but there must be fundamentals we can use. We just have to think out of the box but that is the hard part

[mountainm]

My hammock bliss sky bed is made from seperate pieces sewn together. It's done in such a way that there's a rectangular Central section with a sleeve for a sleep mat which achieves a perfectly flat lay. The ends are still gathered though.

[Yojimbo]

There was also a thread where there was discussion about using a parallelogram shape. Not sure where that ended up.

An issue that is brought up in discussions like his is adding seams in stress areas of the hammock may weaken the fabric. Also if you cut down the bulk of the fabric at the ends, you are putting more stress on the fabric that is left. With the light weight fabric being used, it won't be strong enough to hold up. But with the new stronger, lighter fabric just coming out, that may be a different case. Also a combination of heavier stronger narrower at the ends and wider lighter in the middle may work.

Another issue is there are some who say laying across a seam is uncomfortable. I haven't done that so I don't know.