I probably could've searched or read into this but I thought Id ask you guys...
I've heard/read a couple times that you should steam your tying feathers. Is that to disinfect or sterilize them or does it benefit how the feather will lay or wrap? Just wondering.
I'm sure there's a reason for steaming...cleaning, bending, raising the room's humidity level, clearing out nasal passages pre-tying session, etc. But in 30+ years of tying, I've never steamed a feather. Maybe I've been missing something very cool. Who knew?!
Steamless in Vermont,
Gary
What steaming does is to make the feather fiber recover their original shape, i learned to do it when i was (more) active into archery and had to repair the arrow fletchings after some use.
I only steam feathers intended for strip or married wing flies
It is rare that I steam a feather intended for strip wings. If the routine cleaning I give them ( a warm bath with dishwashing liquid/Woolite) does not improve their ability to stick together...then a steam treatment is probably a waste of time. Usual culprits include Golden Pheasant and Amherst amongst others. As for married wings...I steam these assemblies about 50 % of the time, believing (right or wrong) that it will improve the zipper like effect that sews them together. These wings will often have several species involved in the wing.
In any event, attempting to coerce or coax that which was never meant to be...is also useless
Great info as always guys. Thank you all. Jonathan, i've definitely got Radencich's book on my list now. I know he has several...and a dvd i believe. And Flytyer, fortunately for me, most of my feathers are pretty low grade so it looks like i can pass on the steaming.
especially for GP and Amherst, is to make the barbules straighten out (not the hook ends), thereby allowing you to more easily marry them to other strips.
Feathers that are steamed do appear to marry more easily although the problem children (GP and Amherst) still drive me crazy.
Also, the key to steaming is a CLEAN feather. I soak the whole feather in woolite/photoflo (wetting agent rather than detergent) for about six hours, swishing them around each hour. Allow them to air dry (never touching anything but the stem), then steam.
The last time I steamed any feathers they were already on the fly. That was at least 25 years ago when I lived in trout heaven, also known as Montana, to revive some badly matted dry flies caused by dropping a box full of them into the drink and not taking it out of my vest when I got home to let them dry out properly. However, the only time I would consider steaming a feather is if it wear bent out of shape in some fashion.
But unless it is a valuable of hard to get feather, I usually just chuck them anymore rather than mess with steaming to straighten them. Feathers like GP and AP I soak in Synthrapol and water overnight to clean them and simply leave them air dry after rinsing the Synthrapol solution out.
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