Quote Originally Posted by Gandolf View Post
The quills (the stripped stem of the feather) themselves are used in fly tying, for such things as dry fly bodies for flies such as the quill Gordon and blue dun. However, the quills used for that purpose are hackle stem quills and peacock stems from the flues of a peacock feather. The quills from a marabou feather are generally not suitable for that type of use. They are not strong enough, and they get too thick and stiff after only a short amount of length up the feather.

I should probably add though that, like you, when I first started out I didn't want to throw away anything that might be useable. What you will find, if you save lots of potentially usable stuff, is you will end up with lots of stuff that, while it is usable sooner or later (but probably later), you will actually use very little of it. The junk eventually gets in the way, and you will probably end up pitching it sooner or later.
Yeah, I keep all the material on the quill until I need it, but being left with a bunch of empty quills (sometimes with a tiny bit of ragged fluff on it) really made me wonder if they should go in the trash or a zip-lock baggie.

From what you're saying, the marabou quills alone aren't that useful, so once I've butchered the little suckers I should just say goodbye.