Denny Washing them in Woolite restores the softness to the feather and cleans them very well. I use it on my salmon fly material to get them to marry better. Since I've found this method I don't use the dish soap anymore. Many of the dishsoaps do lift natural oils which is probably still safe for chicken feathers since they have a lot of natural oil but you don't want to do that with feathers you're going to use in married wings especially the golden pheasant tail feathers. Deb
----- Original Message ----- From: "ConRanch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 10:55 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] New materials > Just my 2 cents worth. > I used to do the micro wave thing and freezing but have come upon what in my > testing has proved to be the best. > I do not like the odor of moth balls that does repel bugs and need > something that will also kill the lil buggers. > Available at Ace or Lowes one can purchase at about half the cost of flee > collars (they do work) one can buy "No Pest Strips". Several different > brands are readily available. > From what I find in using anything that develops heat (micro wave and > pressure cooking) is that the quality of the stem is reduced. We need to > leave the natural oils and composition in them for the hackle to be what we > as fly tiers desire. On suspect materials (road kills etc) by all means wash > the stuff in warm water and dawn, rinse with vinegar in the rinse water. Air > dry, not forced heat. > I have been using the No Pest strips for a couple years now and they really > do work. They put off very little odor. If you have any questions please > feel free to contact me off list by either phone of e-mail. > Denny > > CONRANCH HACKLE > Dennis Conrad > 509-999-7472 private cell > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://members.tripod.com/CONRANCH/ > >
