Remedial Rhea

[alhuger]

 

I posted this to speypages tonight but I figured enough people tie with Rhea here that it's worth a re-port. So, after much experimentation I have come up with a method which allows me to split my Rhea reliably (with very little waste) on low and high grade plumes both. In order to do it you need a cutting board and a good razor blade. The steps are:

 

1. Lay out the plume on your cutting board and ensure you have strong lighting over it. You will need to be pretty precise so the lighting is important.

 

2. Take your razor blade and slice an insert down the middle of the plume at the base of the stem.

 

3. Stand the razor blade up at the base of the stem with sharp end lightly inserted in the incision in the plume.

 

4. Gently start pushing feather, by the stem, the down the cutting board and towards the razor almost as you were using a sewing machine.

 

The stem now should easily split cleanly down the middle. If the blade is sharp and your incision is clean the stem splits like butter under a hot knife. If at any time you feel your running off center you simply pull up the blade, redo an incision and start from there. This works really well for me but I still resort to manually splitting if the stem becomes too fine for the blade to split.

 

You need to be very careful with the blade obviously and if you're pushing hard at all, something is wrong. The stem should move down the board and split along the razor with a very mild amount of pressure. Again, careful with the razor.

 

al

[maxwell]

good idea dude.. ive bin cracking teh stem and peeling the fibers off slowly... works most of the time.. try too keep your fingers close too teh stem or else oyu could rip the fibers off and halfto re-start teh process.. your way sounds way more fun tho!

[pkk]

i think peeling it is better. just grab a hunk of fibers close to the stem and pull. you get less of the stem with it, which makes it wrap better. same for ostrich, and most feathers. i used to soak pheasant tails before i split them.

you will break less and less the more you do it.

PK

[headscan]

i think peeling it is better. just grab a hunk of fibers close to the stem and pull. you get less of the stem with it, which makes it wrap better. same for ostrich, and most feathers. i used to soak pheasant tails before i split them.

you will break less and less the more you do it.

PK

I tried this with ostrich the other night but it was pretty dry and brittle so it kept cracking around every 10-15 fibers. Would soaking them help this or is it just because I'm not doing it right?

[pkk]

I tried this with ostrich the other night but it was pretty dry and brittle so it kept cracking around every 10-15 fibers. Would soaking them help this or is it just because I'm not doing it right?

 

 

it happens. the top portion of the feather splits the best because the stem is thinnest.yes soaking does help.

[headscan]

Ah, I started at the base since I figured if I was going to screw up it might as well be with the least usable part. Just gave it a shot from the top and it worked like a charm. Thanks Pete.

[alhuger]

Ah, I started at the base since I figured if I was going to screw up it might as well be with the least usable part. Just gave it a shot from the top and it worked like a charm. Thanks Pete.

 

I will have to get a demo from one of you at some point. For now the razor is working really well but I know it's risky.

 

 

[headscan]

I know exactly what you mean. I tried using an x-acto to split the feather at first until I had visions of me standing in the emergency room with a finger in a cup of ice...

[maxwell]

i like too start from teh top and i try too break the stem at teh top first when i start too strip the feather