First off I have to thank the crew at Dutchware. I had ordered some Argon and while it was being processed I emailed them and asked if they thought it would work well as a hammock. The response was basically we don't know but if you are willing to test it and post your findings I will send some to you. Of course I jumped at the chance and offered to pay a fair price for the goods since I would be getting the benefits. I was told in no uncertain terms..... shush there will be none of that its for science what color would you like??? WOW. A day later in another post I had stated that I was looking forward to trying the Argon in a TQ and UQ. The Dutch crew once again said. Hey we have a new idea. Precut baffle material would you like to try it out for us??? I said HECK YEAH. I again offered to pay and was not even answered they packed it all up and sent it out. A couple days later I got my package. 11 feet of brown, 11 feet of gray and a nice fat roll of precut baffle material. WOW We all know this stuff is not cheap and I am truly grateful for the chance to test it. Thanks again Guys.
Now on to my findings. If I confuse anyone with my rambling please just let me know and I will try to clarify. If you can think of anything else you want tested let me know I will try.
The Argon was great stuff to work with. Soft and very silky feeling. Though pretty darn slippery. It is going to make a sweet feeling TQ. Its hard to believe its down-proof since it is only approx. 1/1000 of an inch thick. It is super light, from the website I think it was stated as being around .67 oz per square yard. WOW. I was having dreams of a 4 oz hammock using dynaglyde whoopies.(swoon) First thing I did was cut a piece about 3 inches long and a inch wide and tried to tear it with my bare hands. I could tell it was nylon but it DID rip fairly easily. Looking closely at the fabric you can tell most of the threads run in one direction. I cut some 2 inch strips clamped them in a couple of pieces of MDF and clamped them in a vise. I hooked on my dads handy suitcase scale and gave it a pull to see how much effort it would take to break. I pulled a average of 19 pounds of pressure for the Argon to break. I also did this with some 1.1 oz ripstop and it broke at approx. 40 pounds of pulling force. I then doubled the Argon and repeated the test and it broke in the area of 39 pounds. One of big differences I noticed was the look of the break. The ripstop tore but the rip traveled along the reinforcing fibers as you would expect, The argon ripped jaggedly and there were long fibers pulled left hanging. It was a very ragged rip. Another thing I noticed was the Argon was very edge sensitive. Meaning any rubbing on a edge cause it to rip when under pressure. If I pulled it perfectly straight I would rip at its weakest point, if I pulled it on a angle it tore every time where is left my clamps.
Next thing I wanted to test was what I called the poking test. I pulled the Argon tight to about 15 pounds then poked it with a sharp awl. The ripstop did what you would expect. The awl made a hole and that's it. The Argon tore instantly. It was almost like popping a balloon. It ripped from one end of the strip to the other instantly.
While testing it was fun I thought there was nothing like putting my fat rear end in it to see if it would hold me from crushing my soft gluteus, so I folded a piece over to make it double layer and knotted both ends. Larks headed a couple of whoopies and headed for the back yard. I SLOWLY lowered my rear into my new Argon hammock chair and it stretched. and stretched. Then it stopped. It held me quite easily actually and was a very soft feeling seat. I would consider bringing it as a camp chair if you could be very careful packing it. The piece I had was 11 feet long folded over, add dynaglide suspension and it would weigh approximately... well... not much. I climbed out of my chair and took a good look at the fabric. There were some pretty serious stretch marks. When I checked in the morning the were about 50% gone but the rest I fear are permanent and it will not return to its previous shape.
Next I knelt on the ground and put both hands into the middle of my seat and put all of my weight, actually lifting myself off the ground, on my hands. The Argon held me with no issues with my full body pressing into a small area. I had my dad sit in the chair and it held him at about 230 pounds
A quick summery
I have no doubt it will hold my weight if its doubled up. I am 185 pounds. I would say doubled up its just a little weaker then 1.1 oz ripstop though it has a much nicer hand. It would make one sweet feeling hammock. However it is way too prone to ripping under stress with just a small hole. Just a tiny tear would render it unusable and cause a catastrophic failure. You would have to double it to hold a adults weight and that would put it at around 1.34 oz per yard or so which would make it actually heavier then 1.1 oz ripstop. The hand might make it worth while because it does feel nice but there is no getting past a puncture failure. Attached are some pictures. I used black strips for pull testing and Grey for the chair. There is one close up of gray ripstop which shows the hole I poked with the awl. The picture right before is what happened to the Argon when I poked it. I did not test sewing it yet though I will. I have a feeling the stitchs will tear the fabric when its put under load but its just a guess so far.
Again thanks to the Dutchware crew for letting me play. If there is anything that anyone can think of they would like me to test on this fabric just post it and I will see what I can do.
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Originally Posted by sargevining
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