3 Ducks 3 hens. One of the hen necks was quite badly damaged so I left that. One hen was black with a little brown. My friend wouldn’t let me skin the bird but I got the cape off it. The final hen is a dark Greenwell’s. Very well marked. I made sure I got the cape off that one. As I don’t have any borax I’m drying the skins in salt.
The ducks provided me with lots of large flank feathers for Wally wings. (I will have several hundred Wally Winged Wullfs to tie for a shop I supply in a few months time) and some CdC. I was disappointed that the duck wings were rather tatty so I couldn’t utilise those for winging quills. However, I have been told that soon I will be getting several dozen pairs of hen pheasant wings, which I will dye up various colours.
Having made the mistake of using salt years ago on materials I cringe when I see someone else making the same mistake.
So very little salt is required to rust out hooks that may find a seriously unpleasant surprise when a wet fly gets put back in a box… and suddenly you open the box a couple days later to intense rust on bunches of flies…
I wash most of my skins and do not hesitate to do it every once in a while. Our very dry winter air makes hackles brittle… I would wash the salt off ASAP and replace with borax…
There isn’t a lot to see just now. Just newspaper and salt. I haven’t been able to get hold of borax around here, and didn’t want to leave them while it arrived mail order. Once done I will.
Cheers,
A.
Fortunately, here in the Highlands, people still have some connection with their food, a sight like this is more likely to result in the comment “lucky beggar” than an adverse reaction.
Cheers,
A.
