Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-11-05 19:48
... believe turkey and the reddish side wing feathers of peacocks originally used to distribute moisture all around the inside bore, not absorb moisture, although after distribution may have seemed dry enough, pioneer era ingenious thrifty method before expensive Damp-it hit the market
... in not-so-long-ago historical time, access to good supply of feathers was very easy for a lot of people, as poultry & game birds were sold unplucked, major job for the cook's junior assistant ... and much easier done while dead bird is still warm, harder and smellier when cold, because usually a dip in boiling water is needed to soften things up a bit for plucking, have you ever smelled hot wet feathers, phew!
... my neighbourhood blue heron hasn't donated any long feathers yet although occasionally flies by and rests on garden shed roof, so i'm always hoping for one
... feathers can be hand-washed by stroking between the fingers in luke-warm liquid soap solution used for silk fabric (should have some to wash silk swobs) and is the very first thing to do with any found feather, yes rinse well, stroke feather into shape and air-dry
... shorter feathers (about 6" long, trimmed and stripped to about 3" of bristly feather) will do very nicely to clean out that gunk inside ... reeds
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