Join at http://www.primitivearcher.com
cheers,
Erron
Cleaning Your Feathers
by K.I. Koppedrayer
“If you do it right, they will sing.â€Â
Those words came to mind the other day when I picked up an arrow that had been fletched with natural turkey feathers. No commercial treatment or processing had touched them. You could see how the fletcher had split the quill and how the vanes had been cut and trimmed. You could also see something else. With their ragged edges and pin-hole perforations, these unprocessed feathers showed the ravages of mites–very hungry mites. Holding the feathers up to the light, I could see the damage was considerable. With their ragged edges, the arrow had a rather rustic look, and the fletches were in what might be considered a natural state, but insect damage isn’t exactly a look that appeals to my aesthetic sense. Insect damage suggests trouble, as it can multiply at a rapid rate, destroying in short order feathers that are not so easily obtained.
Damage of this sort is, however, not inevitable, and as I was looking at what the mites had done, I was reminded of ways you can take care of feathers.
One common approach that works for other insects as well as mites is to keep a fresh supply of mothballs in with feathers, as they are stored. The key, though, is to keep the feathers in an airtight container, as mothballs are effective only when their fumes build up to a high enough concentration to kill any invasive insects. Contrary to common belief, the characteristic odor of mothballs is not what keeps insects away; what works is the level of toxicity of the fumes.
Mothballs are made from naphthalene, a volatile hydrocarbon, first distilled from coal tar in the early 1800’s. Naphthalene has been used as a household product for years, but it does have its drawbacks. The necessity of airtight containers is one, and its toxicity is another. Further, most works that discuss the use of mothballs caution the need to avoid their direct contact with the skin or with fabric. Mothballs can be used with a supply of feathers in storage, but there’s the question of what to do with feathers already on arrows. Some time ago, my husband was in Vermont, and one night of exposure to whatever insects were in the tent reduced the fletches on some beautiful Japanese arrows to shreds.
That calls to mind another way of taking care of feathers, contained in the words that opened the article, “if you do it right, they will sing.†The person who told me that was describing how he had been taught to take care of feathers. What he was referring to was a way of cleaning feathers. What you do is make a tea with flat cedar. Put a small handful of green flat cedar into a pan of water, and be careful about the kind of pan you use. No aluminum. In a pinch stainless steel can work, but it is better to use an enamel or glass pan, and preferably one that is only used for purposes like this. Simmer the cedar in the water, not boiling but softly simmering it until the tea is a nice green color, not too light and not too dark. I like to use rainwater, because it is nice soft water.
Once the tea is made, let it cool down. Then wash the feathers by stroking the vanes with the cedar tea, working your way outward and upwards from the quill, gently stroking them and listening to them sing. This process cleans the feathers and also gives them a light coating of cedar oil. As the feathers dry, you can see the way they shine. If you have ever seen a hawk spreading its wings to dry the dew from them in early morning sunlight, you get a sense of how beautiful the feathers can look.
In some cases, if the feathers that are going to be used for fletching are quite dusty or dirty, they can be washed in a very mild soap, such as a baby shampoo. After washing the feathers in the mild shampoo solution, rinse them by swishing them in clean water, and then follow up with the use of the cedar tea. The use of cedar helps replace the oil removed by the soap.
One other tip: if your fletches get disheveled and ratty-looking from transport or use or handling, there’s another way to help restore them. Put a teakettle of water on (and I suppose that you could add some fresh cedar to the kettle). Bring the water to a good boil, and gently rotate your fletches in the steam. The steam plumps up the individual barbs of the vanes and returns them to their natural alignment. I also don’t want my fletches to be too stiff, and I find that the steam helps keep them pliable. The cedar tea has a similar effect.
The cedar oil in the cedar tea offers protection to the fletches, but I don’t want to make the claim that this way of washing feathers is an absolute guarantee against mites and the damage they do. Neglect is sometimes a contributing factor to this type of damage, and any attention given to feathers helps off-set the possibility of damage, but does not offer total or complete protection. Washing feathers in the way I have described takes care of them, and it is one way I handle and refurbish natural fletches. Other types of feathers, such as those used in traditional and ceremonial ways by certain native people here in Canada, are also cared for in this way, and usually on a very regular basis. The very act of taking care of a feather like this involves cleaning, but extends beyond that to include respect shown to the feather and to the life from which it came. The act nourishes an attitude that itself is a way of honoring what we have been given to use.