It's too easy, just wash in borax,which you can get anywhere. Or use your woolite, fill a tub or sink stir throw in feathers. Stir feathers and swish around. Let soak awhile couple hours , take out your feathers comb them with your fingers.
Go get your wife's hair dryer, dry them while combing with your fingers.just did it and it turns out great.
Good luck.

 

Those feathers look clean. A rinse under hot water and a hair drier will do a good job of preening them and maybe soap wash if you plan on dyeing any.

 

I just keep it simple and use dawn dish soap. Wash, rinse, dry, and steam

 

I've used Dawn dish soap and Woolite before, both work great. If they are a bit wonky after drying, just put them over a light stream of steam from a kettle.

 

I've screwed up some nice turkey tails before. I think my mistake was placing them wet into the freezer. Barbs never married again even after steaming.

When you wash your harbs will split. Be sure to dry them completely before you freeze or steam them.

 

Domantus, you da man! Why not then put all kinds of feathers in the freezer wet when we no longer want them to marry? I am going to grab a fist-full of teal right now, and try it. Stay tuned.

 

It happened to me once with turkey. I messed up a lot of white turkey tails that time Goose wont work. Bleaching them is a much better approach. In fact ill be doing some burning rignt now.

 

Well I tried the wet feather-into-the-freezer trick to see if I would get divorced feathers. Didn't work with the feathers I typically use to make hackle, those being goose shoulder feathers, washed in dawn dish soap and/or borax.

 

I've done this many, many times.

DO NOT use a hair dryer on the feathers...ever!! Wash them in a mild Woolite solution. Swish them around a bit then let them soak a couple of hours. Rinse them thoroughly but when doing so again DO NOT run your hands or fingers over the feathers. Lay them out on paper or cloth towels and let them air dry completely. Next they can be steamed and FINALLY gently stroked back into shape with your fingers. The end result will be smooth feathers with their natural gloss...almost a sheen actually.

A little time consuming...but well worth the effort.

Cheers,
George

 

Why not? Curious - Is it a personal thing against hair driers on feathers?A preference for methods that are more involved?

I advocate the use of hot air because it preens the feathers. Because it is quick also. Barbs that are loose, lightly damaged and/or bent from packaging come right back to natural form with a shot of hot air. Any preen oil that may be in the feather , and there is always some in there, is brought back to the surface by the heat. I limit the use of detergents and soaps and only if the feathers are caked with dirt, blood or any stuff that hot water alone won't loosen. Prior to dyeing too. Married wings don't always go down on the first attempt and the hair drier is an easy way to prep them for another try...

You might give it try sometime and see.

 

wash feathers

from a road kill warrior , dawn dish soap . it's what they use to "re-condition " birds after an oil "spill " .
thanks , jim

 

Dawn foaming dish soap and some borax cleans them right up. Any duck flank feathers go in a pillowcase and get dried on very low heat for 5 minutes then switched to no heat and they come out great.

Any wing feathers, fur or tails same wash treatment then onto paper towels.