Preppin feathers

[ACSooner80]

Ok, I've had some feathers, wings, and tails in a rubbermaid tub thats been in my garage for bout a year or so, and some of them were never fully dried out, and still had some moisture, and they been in the garage in the heat.......are they trash now or can they still be cleaned up and used? Also is there anything special I need to do since that have been in storage?

Thanks,
AC

[Fatman]

Do they smell??? Are they moldy??? Are there any bugs in them?? If there's any bugs in them trash em!!!! You don't want to contaminate any of your other tying supplies. If just smelly you can try washing them in Dawn dishwashing detergent and warm water. Blow them off with a hair dryer to get heavy moisture out. Get a big piece of plywood and put a layer of borax on it then put the wings, tails and feathers on top of it, then pour a layer of borax over the top of all of them making sure they are all covered. Watch them and any time you see a wet spot in the borax use a spoon and lift it off and put some dry borax on the spot. Do this for about a week or so or until you see no more moisture spots then knock off all the borax. If you have matching wings from any type of bird put both of them in a zip lock bag, tails in another, and loose feathers in another. I put a 1" piece of flea collar in mine for more protection and then seal the bags up.

Even after cleaning and curing I keep these materials separate from my other materials (my own quarantine period) for about a month.

I learned all this stuff from Fly Anglers online and I haven't had any bugs or ruined feathers yet. I even clean up swap materials from all the boards I'm on.

[skiptomylu]

Like Fatman said if they are still nice and no mold or stink or bugs you can probably use them. I never leave any feathers out in an place with no AC. I keep all my supplies inside. The only time I have feathers or hair in the garage is to put something I got new in the freezer to kill bugs and then out after a few days for at least one day and then back in the freezer and after that into the house and near my supplies. I never would leave any materials stay wet in some place they wouldn't dry as that is something you have to make sure of is they dry asap and are free from bugs and other bad things.

[Frank C]

Hey Skip and Fatman how did those snow goose feathers work for you, i was thinking of you guys when i found anothe bag of feathers in the freezer the other day.

[skiptomylu]

To be totally honest I have not used them yet, but think they will do great! I am happy to have them for sure! Nice white soft hackle is really useful. The stiffer feathers don't have as many uses, but they also have their spots. I really appreciated getting them. Also white soft hackle is good for so many different uses.

[Fatman]

I've used a couple wrapped soft hackle style on trebles making copy cat spinners for my nephew, the one I made is on the right
[IMG][/IMG]

Course I messed a few up as I hadn't made that type of spinner in a while. It's a bit hard to spin them on the wire with the treble below, instead of on the treble hook itself. Got my grand daughter here so trying to sneak in a little tackle making when she goes out with Gram!!