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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: Don Batten on April 05, 2009, 08:10:00 AM
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Ive been saving turkey feathers for a long time with the idea of makeing my own fleatching. I tried differant ways of grinding the quills with not much success. I got some rite dye from the food lion and tried my hand at some dyeing. you can add diff colors to customize what you need. I got the GN system and it is fool proof. ground the dyed feathers and it cleans the quill up nice and white. 4" chopper and hear you go. Don
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c222/526don/100_0449.jpg)
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c222/526don/100_0450.jpg)
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I like!!! Nice job :thumbsup:
What if you grind all the pulp off? Is there a reason to not remove all the white stuff?
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Looks great.I'm building myself a grinding jig very soon.
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Nice looking fletching your making :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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I use one as well, but find it still leaves the base of the feather a little thicker than I like.
After igrind them, I cut to length and but them in a jig clamp and sand them down a little further with my belt sander.
I typically use factory white feathers along with turkey feathers, and the factory ones have a much thinner base, which caused some difficulty when I burn them to shape.
But for doing the lions share of prepping the feathers, this jig is the way to go. Fast and easy.
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Good looking feathers there! Where did you get them shafts?(LOL)
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Did you ritz die the feathers? They look great.
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With the rite dye did you just follow the package instructions or are there any secrets. Great looking feathers.
Mike
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Mike, I kinda played around with the colors till I got something close to what I was shooting for.You'll have to sacrifice a few test feathers. I guess you could save the dye in a jar or something and use it over and over. Don
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They look good Don. How long does it take to grind a feather with this system? I made a jig several years ago that worked fairly well if you could get by the smell. I was using a belt sander. Doesn't that system use a sanding drum on your drill press? Also do you remove the upper side of the feather before you start grinding?
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Looking good. I have just started th same thing myself. I have been using my fletching jig to hold the feather while I sand it on my bench belt sander and drums on the drill press.
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Don, It's real easy. takes longer to put the feather in the gig than to grind it. yes , it uses a drum sander in a drill press. The drum has a rubber stop on the bottom, kinda like a router bit. No way you can go too deep. you grind the bottom and them flip the gig 90 degress and grind the side. about 4 seconds per feather less the time to load and unload. The smell is still the same though.and yes you slit the quill with a razor knife before grinding. see ya soon . Don
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Those have "10 ring" written all over them!!