I wonder if anyone in the tying world has tried using a wing burner to cut feathers.

When I was real big into bowhunting I used to fletch all of my own arrows. Well it was a little cheaper to buy the full length feathers and use a wing burner to cut them to the desired shape, whether it be a shield cut, parabolic, etc., instead of buying them pre-cut. You could even make your own design. A friend of mine did some that looked like flames that really looked cool even though they were pretty loud going through the air. Anyways, it would be pretty easy to modify one to cut feathers for wings on flies.

Heres a tip too- those full length turkey feathers are cheap, I get em for about 11 cents a piece in just about any color you can imagine from my local archery shop. They make a great inexpensive wing material for quill wing flies, as well as some cool colored wingcases for steelhead nymphs