Washing or Cleaning Feathers

[paparex]

I received a fresh Rock Ptarmigan http://www.birdpost.com/taxonomies/1009-rock_ptarmigan skin from a friend who likes to hunt well above the tree line. I am drying the skin in Borax and it is going well. My question is: How many of you then wash the feathers or do you just use them au natural? I have been tying the soft-hackles directly from the skin with no additional preparation. Pros and cons on shampoo/detergent/soap treatment from a fishing stand point? The skin will go into the freezer tonight for a week and then air dried in a paper sack for another week or so before I think it has eliminated the little critters the birds might have been carrying. I sure wish I had the feathers from the legs... Maybe a future skin.

[img]http://birdpost_images.s3.amazonaws.com/Lagopus_muta/1157.JPG[/img]

[paparex]

Another skin on its way

[Mataura mayfly]

Personal preference, but I do not wash any feathered skins I get, wild harvest or sent to me. The freeze and borax should serve you well. Pluck the feather you intend to use and use it au natural as you say.

[Smuggler]

I ALWAYS wash feathers, fur.. wild or farm raised. It's good to do for obvious reasons and to get the excess grease out from the skins. Using hair conditioner on feathers makes the stems very pliable. Just don't use anything with some kind of wild scent lol. After washing and drying I'll rub some borax into the skin and let it air dry for however much time needed.. two days should be plenty.

I firmly believe in washing everything you buy/harvest, there's no reason not to.

[paparex]

The natural oils certainly make soft hackles stick together and getting the perfect fiber separation difficult. Anyone sold on the gamey oil is a fish attractor? Did the 18th C tiers wash the game bird feathers? Donald?

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

Thought Mike C. had posted one of his highly detailed posts about this subject some time ago.
Dang, it's been awhile since he left...

hank

[crazy4oldcars]

I have Mike's dissertation on treating skins (pdf). Drop me a PM with an email address, and I'll send it to you.

Kirk

[ashley]

These days I make the 2nd part of skin preservation the cleaning of the skin. The first having been the skinning of the beast.
I find that the skin as much less fat in the skin itself thus making for a nicer quality skin when I finish. I preserve my skins along the same methods as written in From field to Fly'. I also always use borax because, apparently bugs don't like it.

[Mataura mayfly]

OK, I just had the delightful task of washing a down filled duvet....... don't ask...... but found and used a product called "Down Wash" specifically designed for feather filled garments and will not harm the feathers in any way, but cleans VERY well.
Ordinary laundry detergents matt the down and you end up with said garment clean, but with matted lumps of down instead of free loft. So, maybe this product has an application in feather/skin cleaning?

[tjd]

I just finished cleaning some wood duck flank and white breast feathers a few minutes ago. Cleaning them is well worth the time and effort, in my opinion. I rinse them in cool water to get them damp, and separate any bloody feathers
or foreign matter. I then add some warmer water and Dawn dishwashing liquid. Swish them around for a few minutes and drain into a collander. Make sure you place something like a dish rag in the drain so none of the feathers escape through the holes in the collander when you rinse them (cool water, again). You may need to repeat the process if the feathers were dirty or bloody.
When thoroughly rinsed, place on paper towels to dry. When you pull them from the collander they will look like a sodden mess! Don't worry, after you spread them out on paper towels they will fluff back up. Work them with your fingers to separate all of the feathers. It will take them some time to dry thoroughly. Changing the paper towels once they get damp will speed up the drying process.
When they are thoroughly dry I place them in plastic bags, with a couple of moth balls or flea collar sections. Sometimes I strip the basal fluff before I store them, sometimes not. It depends on how badly I want to sort them by size and tying application.
The same technique works well for pelts or full bird skins, too. If doing bird skins or mammals I generally add borax after the fur or feathers have dried.
I hope this is useful.
Best,

Tim