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Rjohn7

was a good weekend for scrounging materials

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@ fshng2 and anyone else interested. I did a test on some more feathers including peacock herl.

 

Thanks for sharing.

The Peacock definitely looks as though it's barbs (flues) are reduced by about 50%.

This process does not appear to be as aggressive as bleaching as shown by your first example being supple.

Bleaching can remove barbs within 20 seconds and can make the quills brittle.

Feathers left in bleach solution too long can easily be ruined.

What type feather did you use in the first example?

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@ fshng2 and anyone else interested. I did a test on some more feathers including peacock herl.

 

Thanks for sharing.

The Peacock definitely looks as though it's barbs (flues) are reduced by about 50%.

This process does not appear to be as aggressive as bleaching as shown by your first example being supple.

Bleaching can remove barbs within 20 seconds and can make the quills brittle.

Feathers left in bleach solution too long can easily be ruined.

What type feather did you use in the first example?

 

oh this is very very slow and seems to be the sort of thing one can walk away from for days. have a batch that's been soaking for 4 days and its still not brittle.

The first one was just the downy marabou like feathers of a chicken. think chickabou. They are actually fairly fragile which is why they stripped so fast compared to others. in only like three hours.

 

ack. bleach does a number on feathers. if you look at feathers under extreme magnification, they are covered even the quill and barbs with over lapping scales, (so is hair) strong bases like lye or bleach pretty much blasts these off. where as stuff like de-greaser lifts them (that's why if you use something like dawn dish-liquid on your hair it will tangle like mad) mild acids like a table vinegar mixed with water closes the scales down. de-greaser will eventually dry them out, and make them less flexible but in that case they can be treated with an oil to re-hydrate them (much like a hot oil treatment on hair) then washed.

Like wise the barbs have a honeycomb like strutted structure on the underside and interior. this provides flexibility and strength. Bleach destroys it rapidly. once that is destroyed there is no way to stop the feathers from being brittle. That is the structure that when de-greased heavily needs to have oil replaced to restore strength.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vduamuo09scwq2v/150%2C000.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xge3960gqcbz63a/feather%2015000.jpg?dl=0

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I heard degreaser and bleach and kind of got it, but didn't really get it until you explained it rj, thanks for that. And awesome pics, truly.

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I heard degreaser and bleach and kind of got it, but didn't really get it until you explained it rj, thanks for that. And awesome pics, truly.

These structures are also why we can dye feathers (and hair) with dyes such as aniline derivative dyes. and why dyes that work well on fibers such as cotton do not work well. The scales are raised while dyeing, and the dyes used on animal fibers are molecularity very small, in the case of aniline dyes the color molecules are not even linked in chains yet. They get under the scales of the cuticle of the fiber into the cortex (feathers or hair) and there the molecules develop- link into chains that are too large to fit through the openings they entered. This is what in dyes is referred to as fiber reactive.

 

decolorization is much the same sort of process done in reverse. such as hair bleach, it raises the scales gets into the cortex (the honeycomb like bit) and there break the molecular bonds of the melanin or other color molecules. There is frequently some fiber damage when decolorization. Likely it would strip the feathers in a faster and still controllable manner. whould have to test to be sure and to tell what ratios and processing times to use. This is not what bleach does, it breaks down the cuticle and cortex and the color is no longer trapped. two different processes that seem to have the same effect but have a very different effect on the morphology of the fibers.

 

R.

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99c store - a pink anemone for fish tanks, very wavy, I'll make a bunch of squirmy wormies. I love the 99c store.

 

post-60546-0-27342600-1526961041_thumb.jpg

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I like the dollar store for a number of things here locally. most notably the polyester mylar film. They don't have the iridescent all that often but when they do its the same quality from the machine embroidery places, and makes great wing material.

 

Never seen those anemone things, will look. :)

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