Curing feathers

[Bruno]

A buddy from work gave me a bag full of Pheasant tails and wings that he shot last weekend. I threw them into the freezer. Any suggestions on how to cure them ?

 

[dryflyguy]

You shouldn't have to do anything with the feathers.
The whole wings should be cured in either salt or borax i would guess

 

[JohnnyUtah]

From Field to Fly is a great book. And its cheap. I recommend it.

Your gonna need a place to hang and dry them. Your also gonna need borax. Borax doesnt dry them out, it keeps all the little nasties off. You know the bacteria which cause flesh and feather to rot away. Be sure to remove as much fleshy materials as possible. Put the borax on the fleshy areas. Hang to dry. Let dry for a couple of weeks. IF you splay the wings when you hang them, they will cure faster. It helps a lot to remove the wing meat.

You could also just remove the feathers that you want and put them in shopping and let them dry out for a couple of days. Dont close the bag.

Be sure you do all this where animals cant steal your stash!

 

[flytyingfred]

what I do anymore is take both wings and I pair up each group of feathers one pair at a time(first feather left first feather right and tape them together) then you dont have to worry about getting all the meat out of the wings you just throw it out and you have all the feathers paired correctly. You can wash them at that point in some dawn dish liquid and then put them in a cream rinse bath and rinse them good hang them to dry and your good to go. I usually blow dry them with a hair dryer and then spray them with fixative before using.

 

[sandfly]

fred does a great job with them...if you go the whole wing, then split the wing along the base area (where the hot wing is) and work some borax inside where the meat is..tails are fine on their own, tail clumps need to be done with borax..Borax is the best to use..

 

[plombardo]

denatured alcohol

 

[sandfly]

denatured alcohol

for what ??

 

[wsender]

Soap and hot water. If it's good enough for surgeons, it's good enough for you...

 

[MKern]

Pluck the feather and trim the quill where it meets the wing; store in plastic bags. Heck pair up the opposing wing feahter to have matched pairs.

 

[riverdog]

Anyone have any suggestions on curing a couple wood duck skins. I was able to get a few last week and have them salted down at the moment.

 

[sandfly]

wash off the salt it will dry them, but they will be like a board when done..pat dry and do as below, skins will come out nice and pliable.

lay them out skin side up and add lots of borax to the skin. Then cove in newspaper and do second skin on that, add more newspaper then a flat weight on top to press them. check them every few days for more borax. after a week or so should be done..wings do as above.. this is the best way to preserve them.

 

[JohnnyUtah]

I recommend a bath in white gasoline, then a wash and soak in soapy water. Ducks are extremely greasy and the grease has got to go. Dont worry the white gasoline will do no harm to skin or to the feathers. You can gentle wring the water out.

Once this is done you can employ the method sandfly uses. By washing the skin in the white gasoline you will cut the cure time down by a lot. And you will end up with great quality skin. (assuming its not riddled with shot holes and your gentle with the whole process)


The whole things sounds like a big pain in the butt, i know. But the end result is something you will be happy with im sure.

 

[sandfly]

dawn for dishes will do the same as white gas and is not as bad or flammable...

 

[JohnnyUtah]

Sorry sandfly but dawn just takes to long. And its not half the degreasing power of as white gasoline or mineral spirits. The dawn will not remove all the fatty deposits. After you immerse the skin in the wg for no longer than 5 minutes, and you remove and wring out. You will see all the fatty pieces you missed when you scraped.

I just do the best job possible on persevering the skins i get. I dont want anything rotting or spoiling before i use them up. And i cant say enough about From field to fly by Scott J. Seymour.

 

[riverdog]

Sandfly and Johnny U thanks for the info. I'm going to try both methods and decide which one works better for me.

Jim

 

[gfen]

Just curious how anyone who wants to claim any shred of enviromental conscience gets rid of enough naphtha to soak a hunk of duck.

 

[JohnnyUtah]

gfen wrote:

Just curious how anyone who wants to claim any shred of enviromental conscience gets rid of enough naphtha to soak a hunk of duck.

I havnt had to "get rid of" any. I reuse the same over and over. Oil and gas dont mix so its easy to separate the gas from the oils left behind from the duck skin.