Feather stripping.

[riarcher]

Having a brain fart!
Some time ago I remember a vid on stripping the quil from a feather.
Indian(?) was demonstrating with quil in mouth and blowing and stripping at the same time (I think).
Remember not much about it and definately looking to strip some soon.
I've searched on here and elsewheres and the little I could find mostly had broken links. Thus of little use.
I know the split with razor and grind / sand technique, but think what I'm refering to is quicker and cleaner.
Anyone know what I'm talking about? (not sure if I do honestly.  ) Any leads to vids?
I'm almost certain I saw it on YouTube, but that place is nuts for finding things now days.

[Pat B]

I prefer to split and grind but I have stripped feathers. One secret is to not use feathers that are not too dry. They seem to break if they are. They can, however be dehydrated by putting them in a  plastic bag with a damp rag for a while.
  I think it is more in the motion and direction you pull them and do it in one fluid motion.

[aero86]

turkey feathers you can strip one side.  though, i havent tried stripping the side i want to use..

[Parnell]

Haven't seen that yet.  I've been battling mine with a razor and sandpaper and then I switched to my micro-scissors for fly-tying.  About a million times easier to trim the quill!

[aero86]

i split my turkey feathers with a razor knife, then trim with some good, sharp scissors, then flatten out the rest with a razor blade.

[Pat B]

I split mine with a razor knife, cut to length and use a fletching clamp and belt sander to grind the quill.
  Have you checked out the "How To" section. Might be something there.   I know Pappy has a great method fro grinding feathers. He can whip them out like a machine. If there is nothing in "How To" maybe he will post some pics when he gets back on Monday.

[Parnell]

I didn't even think of the belt sander...sometimes I guess I just don't catch on too quick!  Duh!

[riarcher]

I'm still looking for it.

One I speak of is where the guy has the quil between his teeth, and stripping both sides of the feather while holding the empty quil still in his teeth.
There was a couple of "tricks" to the technique that I don't remember. That's why I'm looking.

[wolfsire]

I usually strip feathers.  Here is what I learned from the last time.  Rehydrating can really give old feathers quite a bit of strength.  You can go as light as a damp bag or wet washcloth.  I just fill the sink up with warm water, mix in some hand lotion and soak for about 15 min.  It really reduces the risk that the feather will break while stripping.  However, I forgot about some in the sink for about an hour.  When I stripped one, the outer casing of the quill held together so well that it did not merely strip off one side as wanted, but pealed clear over to the other side making quite a mess, too difficult to fix.  With that caveat, IMO, it is way easier than grinding once you get the knack after about 3 tries.  Unless the feather is too soft, such that you want a lot of quill, like for something other than turkey or goose, or for mega mass like an atlatl dart, it is so much the way to go.

[riarcher]

I usually strip feathers.  Here is what I learned from the last time.  Rehydrating can really give old feathers quite a bit of strength.  You can go as light as a damp bag or wet washcloth.  I just fill the sink up with warm water, mix in some hand lotion and soak for about 15 min.   It really reduces the risk that the feather will break while stripping.  However, I forgot about some in the sink for about an hour.  When I stripped one, the outer casing of the quill held together so well that it did not merely strip off one side as wanted, but pealed clear over to the other side making quite a mess, too difficult to fix.  With that caveat, IMO, it is way easier than grinding once you get the knack after about 3 tries.  Unless the feather is too soft, such that you want a lot of quill, like for something other than turkey or goose, or for mega mass like an atlatl dart, it is so much the way to go.

DUH! Hand soap. 
Thanks that and the rehydrating was the part I couldn't remember.
Bite the big or small end and pull both sides evenly???
I seem to remember him using tail feathers but not sure on that either.


I loose a ton of bookmarks on computer pukes. sometimes I get a rash of them too. 

[Justin Snyder]

I was stripping mine for a while. I decided I didn't like the feathers as well as the ones that I ground. Now I do it the way Pat does.

[DanaM]

Yup I grind em, if ya flatten the quill with a hammer first they split with a knife pretty easy, try an alaskan ulu knife it works real nice to split the quill.
I have two strips of metal about an 1/8" thick that I use with two paper clamps as my grinding jig, get the feather positioned between the two pieces of metal clamp and then grind on the belt sander.

I bought one of them high dollar feather grinders from 3 rivers and hated it, leaves the quill way to thick for my liking

[El Destructo]

DAna ...you still have the 3 Rivers Grinder? If so email Me........

[DanaM]

Nope Mike I traded it Timo, I hated it too slow and left em too thick

[Pat B]

Pappy has a great set up for splitting and grinding feathers.  Hey Pappy, got any pics of your set up?