New Silk Hammock:

New Silk Hammock:

I had received some new material and hardware this past Thur and Friday and when I was putting it away I found the second piece of Silk I had sent Ed Speer a couple of years ago. When I sent him the Silk for my Hammock I sent two pieces just in case he had a sewing problem with the Silk. Yes, something happened and the first piece of Silk tore at one end. He went to the other piece and didn't have any trouble with that piece and made my Hammock of it. I think that Hammock is now going on three years old.

I have wanted to try a "Flat" style Hammock of some of my light Silk for a long time. I wasn't sure the Silk would be strong enough for the extra stress from the spreader bar. I decided to try the Silk and reinforce it the same way I was going to reinforce the Cuben (if/or when) I use it. I say if or when now because if the Silk works I may only use the Cuben for my Winter System. The weight difference of the fabric between the Silk and the Cuben for a Summer hammock is 1.4oz (+/-) a bit. The Silk is a 1/3 less cost compared to the Cuben. The Silk I used for the Hammock bottom is from Thai Silks and is Habotai - China Silk product number 26L - 8mm. The weight of this Silk is 1.02oz a sq yard (+/-) a bit. It is 54" wide and the last price list I have says it is $5.15 a yard. Compared to the $16 or $17 a yard counting the shipping for the Cuben material the Silk was worth a test.

When I was laying in the new Silk Hammock I again realized the really great benefit of Silk for a warm weather Hammock. A slight breeze was blowing and even in the sun my back was very cool. Silk is so nice to lay on.







I was trying to take these pictures with the timer on my camera and had tried several times to beat the clock. One time something broke and this is what it looked like. I didn't hit the ground, I held onto the sides of the Hammock. My first thought was that the Silk torn. It turned out to be a broken D-ring. I never worried about the D-rings and even got some lighter ones to try. I fixed it by using a piece of 550 cord. I think I will replace all the D-rings with cord of some kind. You can see where the missing D-ring should be. There are 6 D-rings on the Hammock and the pictures shows only 5.




The Silk seems to be holding up OK so far. If you only count the weight of the Hammock material, reinforcement material, and D-rings the weight comes to 3.75oz. I am still using the the tie up stuff from the old Army Hammock. The Silk is 34" by 90" or about 2.4 sq yards. The weight of the 8mm Silk is about 2.5oz vs about 1.1oz for same amount of Cuben material.