Steaming Feathers - Save Money, Tie Better

If your like me then you really hate opening a package of material and seeing that all your feathers are folded and kinked....... garbage right?.... not

This is a great post to help you save some of those garbage feathers and some money.

I am using bronze mallard in this demonstration because it tends to have this problem a lot  and if you have tried tying in mallard before you know that it can be one of the most frustrating materials to work with. To generate steam I use a simple tea kettle, it works perfect for this job. 

Here is what the feathers look like right out of the package, you can see that there are lots of folds and splits in the feathers.

Nasty fold, most people would view this as a garbage feather.

Nasty split, again another type of feather typically thrown out.

Prep - I start by stripping off all of the fluffy fibres, this leaves only the usable part of the feather left. 

Material that was stripped off the feathers.

Before steam treatment.

Close up of a split feather right before it hits the steam.

Same feather after some steam... magic. this feather has now been saved from the garbage and it has now been returned to its natural shape.

This will work with most feathers, and will make tying flies much more enjoyable.

Hope you enjoyed this tip

Thanks

Chris