Material Halflife??

[alhuger]

 

 

All,

 

I was sitting in my garage last night tying flies and while I was searching for a material on my pegboard it occurred to me that many of the feathers I have will not be used for a long while. I tie less than I used to because of my daughter and work and that's not likely to change for a while so I was wonder... How long will these things last? Is there as point where they become to brittle to work with? All of my feathers are bagged, generally in their store bought packaging and hanging on a pegboard.

[headscan]

I had this problem with year old pheasant tail feathers recently. Every time I'd start wrapping the fibers around the hook they'd break even under minimal tension. It may have been a cheap/bad feather though. Someone suggested that I should try steaming the feather but I haven't gotten around to trying that yet.

[Jayhad]

I put a bunch of fly tying material away and opened it back up after 12 years. Most everything has survived, but some finer feathers fell apart. Stuff like peacock or ostrich hurl, but none of my capes were affected and one package of elk hair got brittle. All of my stuff was just in the original bags in cardboard boxing. I think UVs would be your worst enemy so a peg board may not be the best place.

[SilverDoctor]

It's the UV that does it. I keep all my materials in closed boxes and file folders away from the light. Have 30 year old capes that are fine (one from the 50's as a matter a fact). I think it also depends on the quality of materials and how the original manufacturer treated the materials (or lack of). I try to keep my materials in original packaging but have some fur pelts that are fine after many years. I have gotten capes that look badly treated and strip all the feathers off just in case

[Guest rickleblanc]

There's also moisture and moths to consider. I have been collecting silica gel packets for years, and put them in with my materials. I had a couple of hungarian pheasant skins get moth-eaten once, but since I started with the silica, I only occasionally find a dessicated husk.

 

Rick

[magpie]

I agree 100% Silica Gel is great.

I just got a Golden Pheasant skin in perfect shape well over 20 years old, packed with silica gel in the bag.

 

A great side use for the silica gel; although it has probably been mentioned, grind it with mortar and pestal or coffee grinder and it is great for "shake".

Once you catch a fish on a dry fly, release the fish, shake the fly in silica gel and it takes out all the moisture, floats great for the next fish.

[SilverDoctor]

I use silica gel packs in my materials box, have a few packs in there, it don't take much. Also have an old Vapona no pest strip, don't know if you can still buy them or not. It's worked great for keeping insects at bay.

[bhurt]

Like most people have said I also think it is UV, as I have stuff not as old as some of the people but still in mint condition. Unforntantly my fly tieing material has slowly taken over my ting desk and my computer desk, I have crap everywhere, but I try to tie at least 3 to 6 flies a night so I tend to go through alot of material.

 

Need to make another trip to the fly shop to replenish some of my supplies.