I have recently obtained some duck skins. One wood duck and one teal.
Both have been stored for some while, and are coated in crusted borax (I think!), but are also covered in what is obviously duck fat. All the feathers are sticky.
I have tried washing the teal skin in a mild detergent to remove the fat, and on the whole it have been successful so far. However the feathers appear split and a mess. Is there any way to rescue this, and what are your recomendations for the Wood Duck. (a real rarity here, so I don’t want to mess it up!!)
I recommend that you pluck all the feathers you think are usable off of the skin. Then was the skin in a detergent to remove the duck oil. This may require several washings. I stick the feathers inside a large sock and tie the end and run it through the clothes washer. Then take the feathers and spread them out as much as possible and let them dry.
This is what I do on the ducks I harvest and it works OK.
At a recent expo…one of the tyers said what Tim just said only he used a zippered pillow case…[think he does lots of feathers]…and then he’d put the pillow case in the dryer and said the feathers come out nice and dry and fluffy.
In my experience the duck skins are too fatty to allow you to leave the feathers in place. I tried washing the whole skin 3-4 times in detergent and the fat still eventually soaked into the feathers. Pluck them and give them a good wash in a sock or zipperd pillow case.
For storage I have sized them in bundles and bound the butt ends with a fine copper wire. Almost as convenient as leaving them on the skin.
Duck wings can be dried successfully, just place them in a box with salt or borax (about 2" thick) and let them sit until all the moisture is gone.
store those dried wings in air tight containers…they will still attract insects with the marrow and meat intact…I also pluck my wings and use the wire to keep the macthed pairs…good to have matched wings from the same bird too!
Your McGinty’s will look awesome!
Back and breast faethers can be very useful in many pattern’s…Still looking for hen mallard skin myself…one of these on the water !!!..Been told my outback is quiet enough to glide up on a sleeping duck!!! I shall see!!!
When I removed and washed the feathers from a woodduck skin and a mallard skin, I used a blow dryer to dry them in a small burlap sack. They came out perfect. It took a lot of time but now I have loads of feathers separated by color and type in ziplock bags.
Eric Leister in his book, Fly Tying Materials, even suggests saving the down at the bottom of each feather for dubbing!
Take a look at the breast feathers of the 2 species of ducks. They make a neat little hornberg type fly. My photographing skills are lacking, but this will give you an idea.
I must have 20 duck skins that are all in great shape with all feathers on them. It is real easy to clean them if you are willing to do so. Just take a dull teaspoon and scrape the hide with it getting rid of the fat being careful not to rip the skin. When you have it all clean wash it in hot soapy water and then dry it out. Now wash it in white gas and dry it again and wash it again in the hot soapy water and you will have a very nice clean non-oily skin with feathers on. I do several at one time but you can do one at a time. Good to do when nothing else is going on. Freeze your skins if you are not going to do them right away. There you go. Ron
I have a set of wings from a barn owl that was hit by a car. It appears from the condition of the bird, it was hit the night before. Instead of plucking all the feathers, I was thinking of hand washing/drying them? Will that work for preserving?
What RonMT said! I have many duck skins with feather attached. Using the spoon is a great trick. You can use a sharper knife or blade to scrape animal hides, but the bird skins are too thin and fragile. The spoon works nice. Once you have the fat off, they’re simple to dry. I know quite a few guys who don’t even go the distance with the white gas (Coleman lantern fuel), but simply wash in soapy water a few times (Dove dishwashing soap seems to work on the fats)and tack them to a board to dry. A dusting with borax finishes them up and keeps out the critters. The white gas is some additional insurance. Just my 2c . . .
JC is correct with the White Gas. Works great getting rid of the oil in the feathers. It also is good at keeping the bugs out. You will not believe how great a skin can look if taken care of in this fashion. I have some thaat you would swear the duck just took off his feathers and handed them to the guy and put on his spare one’s
Folks are right Coleman Fuel = White Gas
I have had great luck with Synthrapol. It’s a detergent that’s a great degreaser. I once soaked a raw mink hide in some water with a small amount of Sythrapol added. I couldn’t believe how well it removed the mink fat. Stone River Outfitters carries it. Bill
