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Was tying flies in the office and someone wanted to see the flies I made. They came back a week later and gave me this :)
Anything special needed to do to dry out the feather sections and to store them? Basically it's just wing sections. Carcass gutted and meat taken. I get the good parts :) . Maybe just a 20.0 hook and cast?
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...-39-03_703.jpg
I usually make sure there is no flesh left on the skin and then lay on a generous amount of salt for a few days.
after a few days I switch to Borax.
I still store them separate from my other feathers.
Make sure that all of the meat is scraped off of the skin. If the wings are just skin down to the last section they should dry out all right. If not skin them out to there. Pin the skin to a piece of cardboard with the feathers down and rub borax into the skin. Repeat daily as necessary until skin is dry. Then turn skin over and paste to the cardboard with feathers out if you want.
I agree with rainbowchaser about the borax. Salt will also work, but must be replaced more often. Congratulations on your nice gift ( getting the meat would have been nice too ) :cool:
I like your friends!!!
I like you!!
Thanks for the info. Gonna head to the store to look for the Borax team.
My kind of friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and yeah borax is the way to go. Wow you got more than wings, those feathers are all good. Two really good articles for pheasant feathers.
http://www.jackgartside.com/art_pheasant_feathers.htm
http://www.terryhellekson.com/ringneck_pheasant.htm
Do not ever use salt on your tying materials! A tiny bit of residue will rust out an entire fly box in humid conditions... Borax does everything better than salt anyway. Salt will always be pulling moisture out of the air and causing issues.
I agree with hap, from my experience = Those skins can make a fly tying table look very snazzy...:)