Cleaning CDC

[Arkansas Mike 0]

I have a full package of white Hareline CDC that, unfortunately, is full of stained and dirty stemmed feathers. According to this guy you can wash CDC with a mild detergent...like Dawn dish washing liquid. Wouldn't this wash out those all-important natural oils of the feather? I tried just rinsing them in water, which didn't help. I doubt the fish care if the feathers are soiled and dirty, but...

 

 

Mike

[Arkansas Mike 0]

I'll just order some more.

 

 

 

[iso18 0]

I'll just order some more.

 

 

I pull mine straight from the butt of the dead duck i shoot,be it,woody,mallard goose,what have you.Let dry and during tying if i run into a cdc barb with blood on it i just scrape off with my fingernails.The fish just love em i tell ya,especially on a # 28.

shane

[Futzer 0]

Hi Mike, you can clean them that way, I would use a milder detergent than Dawn, as it will take oils out of the CDC. Like Ivory liquid soap and a barely sudsy solution. Make sure to fluff them as they dry. You can apply a little cdc oil to your finished products too. I spilled a coke on a pile of CDC once and it was still usable, but not grade A again.

 

Cheers, Jeff.

[halcyon 0]

Actually you want to remove the oil as well as the dirt, blood, etc. The oil has little to do with the floating properties of CDC. It floats when clean for the same reason it holds preen gland oil, its physical structure. That is why you don't use liquid or paste floatant on CDC, you clog the physical structure and the CDC sinks. I agree the Mark Petijean material is top notch and so is CDC sold by E. Veniard Ltd of England and the finest I have found is that sold under the Giorgio Benecchi brand in Italy. All of these are carefully washed and degreased which is why they are so good. Likewise, if the CDC is dyed it has had to be degreased to get the dye to take. An excellent discussion of this can be found at the beginning of the article by Hans Weilenmann located here http://www.flyfisherman.com/ftb/hwcdc/

[Arkansas Mike 0]

Actually you want to remove the oil as well as the dirt, blood, etc. The oil has little to do with the floating properties of CDC. It floats when clean for the same reason it holds preen gland oil, its physical structure. That is why you don't use liquid or paste floatant on CDC, you clog the physical structure and the CDC sinks. I agree the Mark Petijean material is top notch and so is CDC sold by E. Veniard Ltd of England and the finest I have found is that sold under the Giorgio Benecchi brand in Italy. All of these are carefully washed and degreased which is why they are so good. Likewise, if the CDC is dyed it has had to be degreased to get the dye to take. An excellent discussion of this can be found at the beginning of the article by Hans Weilenmann located here http://www.flyfisherman.com/ftb/hwcdc/

 

 

Thanks, halcyon. That's a great article by Mr. Weilenmann. Learned a lot.

 

 

[silverbullet32 0]

soap shouldnt hurt them because they clean birds that got into oil spills with dish washing soap. what are cdc's anyway?

[smallieFanatic 0]

Cul-de-canard feathers are found at the 'rear' of the bird and have oils in them that make them very bouyant, as in they float dry flies really well.

[halcyon 0]

Cul de Canard (CDC) are feathers found on the back of many birds just in front of the tail feathers, especially waterfowl. These feathers surround the preen (uropygial) gland and have a physical structure that promotes the trapping of oil on the feathers where the bird can wipe it onto its bill and then onto its other body feathers. The oil does not make the feather float, this is accomplished by the physical structure of the feather trapping air when it is free of oil and used as part of a fishing fly. In fact if full of oil or any other material such as liquid or paste fly floatant the feathers sink when placed in water. As one would guess there are very few such feathers on any one bird as they only appear around the uropygial gland. If you read the article located at the link in my prior post you will get a good detail of this feather and how it is used in fly tying.

[Futzer 0]

Thanks, Halcyon, Just proves even after 40 years of tying you can still learn many things.

 

Cheers, Jeff.

[Arkansas Mike 0]

I love using CDC. I use it, not only on dries, but on nymphs.

I love the texture...the way it moves...everything.

Jan, two of the three patterns I'll soon be sending you for our

swap incorporates CDC. Silverbullet32, if you want to learn

about it, follow halcyon's link.

As far as I'm concerned, Jeff. You'll always be one of the top gurus here on FTF.

 

 

 

Mike

[halcyon 0]

Thanks, Halcyon, Just proves even after 40 years of tying you can still learn many things.

 

Cheers, Jeff.

 

Amen to always learning. After only 30 years of tying I am learning new stuff everyday. When you stop learning, you may be breathing, but you are dead.

 

Bruce

[silverbullet32 0]

thanks for taking the time to explain to me what cdc is guys. i really appreciate it

 

Loren

[mayfly09 0]

The magic feather as its also known! is the perfect dry wing material, you can even tye a whole dry fly with cdc they float like a cork

 

tight lines

[Firetiger 0]

I love tying with CDC as well, though I must say that as much as I respect Hans Weilman as flytier and photographer I dont buy the idea of degreasing CDC. This applies as well to dyed CDC - to my experience the dyed (i.e. degreased) stuff floats much worse than natural stuff. Though I wonder if this can be reliably tested

 

To my experience the best source of CDC is a shooting friend. If you harvest the CDC yourself you get enough stuff from like 5 birds to last thru the tying season and you save substantial money