Feathers

[Keith]

A friends of mine recently gave me the feathers off of a couple of pheasants that he shot. However, I've been told that using feather off of wild birds might get mites into my fly boxes and cause the whole shotting match to be ruined. Is this true? Is there some way that I could steralize them at home? I was thinking of baking them in the oven.

[Guest tallieho]

air tight bag week or so freezer moth balls I a sense a fire

[Guest 420FLYFISHIN]

i would go with a deepfreez or try microwaving. The radiation from that should kill all small organism and should not do a thing to the feathers as long as they are dry.

[SilverDoctor]

With new wild stuff I usually put them aside for a month or so in a plastic bag away from other stuff to see if anything developes. I always wash wild feathers and fur with hot water and hair shampoo. Air dry and stem the feathers to get the shape back. Seems to do the trick. My containers have some ceder in the bottoms and it seems to help. Never had a problem but I did once buy an eay cape that developed mites and ate up the cape in one week. never again from that seller.

[Keith]

Thanks guys

[maxwell]

i use borax... get feathers from hunting buds all the time.. fur too... never had a problem.. then wash in hot water.. if you ever find your featehrs curl on you or curve.. iron em like u would your clothes on a low setting, learned it from a dude who ties fancy flies and needs them pretty feathers perfect

[SilverDoctor]

Should say that borax is great for curing hides and skins. Havn't used it just for washing feathers but I's a great Idea. I have a box of 20 Mule team just for skins and hides. Do love hair shampoo for a final wash, makes the hair great.