Grouse Feathers - Cut & Preserve

[Chris H 0]

Hey all!

 

I recently got a couple grouse wings dropped off for me. Im sure this isnt the best way to have the feathers but im not about to ask for them to do any work for me considering I was just given a bunch of feathers!

 

Anyways, im really stuck on what/how I should deal with these feathers. I dont mind at all cutting off the feathers and maybe putting them in a zip loc container or bag for storage. Am I on the right track by doing this or is there a better way I should go about this.

 

Also, if I can just cut the feathers off and store, does it matter how close to the 'base'? i cut the feathers. Is that a concern?

 

Thanks everyone, I hope I can make these feathers work and present my friends with some grouse feather flies!

 

Chris,

[Crackaig 0]

A pair of wings is about the best way to store your feathers. Immediately you should dry any fleshy parts around the joint where they were cut off. I usually find a tray or dish of salt is good. Just stand them in it for a week or so.

 

The great advantage of keeping them on the wing is that they are ready sorted for you. You can easily find a matched pair of feathers by looking in the same place on each wing. (If they were not exactly matched the bird would fly in circles!)

 

When it comes to removing the feathers simply pull them out. If you are taking a matched pair, say for slip wings, tape or wire the quills together. Keep them in the same bag as your wings. If you are making slip wings then you can prep the feathers by removing the biots and all other bits that will not be used for slip wings before taping or wiring them together.

 

If you do prep your feathers like this then when you come to take slips off them cut through the quill not the fibres. The quill section on the slip will make handling easier and support the slips while tying in. Below are some photos showing the process with duck quills.

 

 

Hope that gets you sorted,

Cheers,

C.

[Chris H 0]

Thanks for the fast reply C,

 

Im extremly new to fly tying so a LOT...ok ok, all of your terms used im not familiar with. Slip wings, quills, biots, ..."come to take slips off", fibers are considered the fuzies lol, and quill is the bone-ish part of the feather.

 

I feel if your interested in explaining this to me, ill have a great idea what you ment due to the photos you've provided.

 

As for drying any bad parts, I guess there will only be 1 joint exposed from cutting the wings so thats all ill have to focus on, just place that tip/joint in regular old table salt eh? Will I experiance any rot or insects etc from the other part of the wings, under the feathers...

 

I appreciate your time C.

 

Chris,

[Crackaig 0]

First the easiest to answer. You can bring an "infection" of bugs into all your materials from wings like this. There lots of posts about dealing with this kind of thing. You may want to do some research. Once dried, you could give them 10 or 15 seconds in the microwave. That will kill lots of pests. A few naphthalene crystals (crushed moth balls) in a seal-able plastic bag should keep it safe after that.

 

Here is a diagram showing the location of the feathers on a wing. It isn't complete as it doesn't show the under side. The feathers there are known as "Under Coverts"

 

The parts of a feather are here. The fibres on the leading edge are what fly tiers call "Biots". This is for a primary flight feather. It is usually the longer fibres from the trailing edge of these feathers that are used for slip wings.

 

Slip wings. Some of the best examples you will see are here in the Bergman Collection. They are wings on wet and dry flies made from matched slips of fibres taken from matched feathers. Ie. the same flight feathers from each of a pair of wings, the slips being taken from the same place in each feather. Doing them well takes a certain amount of mastery over the materials. Here's some example of mine. First a Silver March Brown wet fly then a Wickham's Fancy dry fly

The upright wing is more the norm on a dry fly.

 

You will see that these are made by cutting off the slips as I did in the post above. The art is getting them on straight and comprssing them down without folding. Like me you will probably be shown the least successful method for doing this first! The pinch and loop. The method I learned many years later is by far the better method for putting on wings. It is called the "Valley Method". It will take a video to show you properly how it is done. If I get back to making videos soon I'll add it to the list to do.

 

Secondary flight feathers can also make nice wings. The technique though, is quite different. A wider slip is cut from these feathers and then rolled or folded into the wing. The easiest way to explain the folding technique is to ask you to imagine opening a book on a table. Take the pages from either side of where you opened it and fold them in to the spine, not all the way in but so they leave a tiny gap down the middle. Then close them as if closing the book. This is then mounted as a single wing. It is also the way duck flank feathers are used for winging. Here is an example, the Silver Invictor. Here the wing is hen pheasant secondary (flight) feather.

 

Hopefully that will help. If I can explain anything else let me know. Try having a go then you will have lots of more specific questions.

Cheers,

C.