How do I clean and wash CDC?

[flytyinfreak 0]

I've harvested the CDC feathers andpuffs from about 8 ducks a buddy got during duck season. how do you wash/clean them? I want to get all the duck butter out of them and clean and dry them. What do I use to clean off the preen oil, and then how do you dry em?!?!?!

[Arkansas Mike 0]

Hey, Ross. I had a similar question a while ago...

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=45208

 

Might answer your question.

 

 

 

Mike

[Firetiger 0]

I would not touch the feathers unless you plan to dye them.

The #1 reason the feathers float so well is their structure, but the duck butter comes as close second.

 

Jindra

[Gustav F. 0]

I would not touch the feathers unless you plan to dye them.

The #1 reason the feathers float so well is their structure, but the duck butter comes as close second.

 

Jindra

 

So do I believe. Neither of these two properties alone will make the feather float this good, but thats their order of importance if you have to rank them.. I suggest you just wash them in some water (heard from a friend that he used some soap as well?) to get rid of eventual dirt.

[flytyinfreak 0]

Problem solved. While doing some research and reading somewhere ( forgot the link and don;t remember where it was) I found that someone had used a bit of mild detergent (liquid dish soap) in a solution with hot water to clean them. I tried it and it works wonderfully!!!! Jindra if you think leaving the oil on the feather when you tye, I dare you to try and harvest and tye with fresh CDC someday. You'll see exactly what i am talking about. When you are plucking the feathers you inadvertently cause some of the oil to seep out of the gland and on to the feather. It makes the feather completely impossible to tye with. try it sometime. get some Vaseline or petroleum jelly and smear your finger tips with it and then tye a fly! Go ahead I DARE YOU! No dice? Didn't think so. The properties of CDC that make it a great dry fly feather has nothing to do with the oil. Every single CDC feather you buy commercially has been cleaned and washed of ALL OF IT"S OIL and dried. The oil is not what makes the feather work. If you think otherwise, go get a CDC feather from your tying desk and look at it under a microscope or magnifier. blot it on a tissue and press really really hard. There is no oil residue on the tissue because all the oil has been taken out of the feather. Looking at a CDC feather under a microscope will reveal the reason why it is so great a material for dry flies. The plumes that sprout from the rachis (quill) have microscopic hairs on them, and those hairs have smaller hairs on them! These ultra-microscopic hairs are so small they have the quality of attracting and trapping air molecules and atmoshperic gases. I know from experience that using goey floatants on CDC is a recipe for a mess. The best way to keep a CDC fly floating is to make sure that i is dry. I also use frog fanny on it to keep the fly bouyant, but I do not put the powder on the CDC part of the fly, only the body as i have found that even the powder clogs up the CDC.

Because of this subject i am going to write an article on CDC and feather structure for Hatches. I have access to an Electron microscope and will include micrographs to accompany the piece.

 

I had to soak a couple of the "puff tufts" a second time but they came out beautifully. I then poured the medium

[Firetiger 0]

I look forward to seeing your micrographs of CDC feathers, either online or in print. I truly like the feather and consider it still underutilised by the Fly tying mainstream

 

However, I most respectfully disagree with your opinion about the role of duck oil in floatation of CDC. In order to put my money (maybe not money, but certainly time and effort) where my mouth is I offer to prepare and perform an experiment - sort of floatation contest between natural and degreased CDC.

 

Oh, and the can of CDC sitting on my tying desk is filled with feathers I plucked myself the last duck shooting season. It is months since it was plucked, but still I manage to get my hands greasy from time to time from just working the stuff ;-)

 

Cheers

 

J.

 

PS: no matter how fine the ultra microscopic hairs on the fibres are I consider them way too big to trap actual molecules of N2 or O2 ;-)

[deeky 0]

As Gustav pointed out, both structure and oil help the feather remain afloat. The structure traps air, while the oil prevents the feather from absorbing water. Oil floats on water, etc. etc. etc. Without the oil, the feathers certainly will remain afloat, but the natural oil will help. As for other floatants - it's pretty well known that you don't use anything other than natural CDC oil on CDC. The others will clog it up. You can buy CDC oil in a bottle to add back to your flies. Not sure why they would continue to sell it if it didn't work.

 

Deeky

[flytyinfreak 0]

So how do the commercially avaliable suppliers dye the CDC without disturbing the oil that is in the feather?

[Gustav F. 0]

As Gustav pointed out, both structure and oil help the feather remain afloat. The structure traps air, while the oil prevents the feather from absorbing water. Oil floats on water, etc. etc. etc. Without the oil, the feathers certainly will remain afloat, but the natural oil will help. As for other floatants - it's pretty well known that you don't use anything other than natural CDC oil on CDC. The others will clog it up. You can buy CDC oil in a bottle to add back to your flies. Not sure why they would continue to sell it if it didn't work.

 

Deeky

 

That's the summary I guess. About flotants, even to much CDC-oil will clug the fibers together. Less is more, floatans should be used sparsely. If there is too much CDC-oil it will acually replace the air being trapped on the fibres, at least I think so. Naturally the fly doesn't float very well if no air can be trapped.

 

So how do the commercially avaliable suppliers dye the CDC without disturbing the oil that is in the feather?

 

I know Marc Petitjean uses some kind of cold water bath. But it's a looong dyeing time, about a week long!

[Firetiger 0]

So how do the commercially avaliable suppliers dye the CDC without disturbing the oil that is in the feather?

 

They degrease it first - otherwise the colors would not stick. That is why colored CDC is said to float worse than natural grey. Very hard to prove btw

 

The only pigment which is said to supposed on CDC without damaging the oil coating is picric acid, though I never tried that one (for obvious reasons).

 

J.

[flytyinfreak 0]

have you guys ever tried Frogs fanny floatant powder/ It's some powerful stuff!

[Firetiger 0]

I am wary about chemicals I let touch my CDC flies - I tried several brands of CDC oil, decided that I like Marc Petijean the best and never looked back

 

J.

[TitanFlies 0]

Water is polar. The chemical properties of all oils make them non-polar. Non-polar substances don't mix with polar substances thus making the duck oil float. Chemistry is awesome.

[flytyinfreak 0]

Frogs fanny is a "waterproofing" powder, amazing stuff actually, here is a link: [url=http://www.waterwisp.com/FrogsFanny.htm]http://www.waterwisp.com/FrogsFanny.htm[/ur

 

This powder was designed to be used with CDC!

[JSzymczyk 0]

:boxing: