Boy I wish I was good at drawing this out on the puter, or heck even by hand but it's really simple.
Those look nice, things line up good left and right, up and down. Can't see much on the joint, but that's two faced too, not seeing it is what you're looking for so I'd bet its fine.
Bascially from the shaft up this is what ya got.
The white stuff I call Pith, then the flat colored part on top, there is a membrane there, or fine skin if you will, then the feather, or barbs, and barbules are the lil hooks tht hold the barbs together keeping things all nice and purdy. This should put us on the same sheet here.
SO regarding the peeling part. Those arrows you have are right helical feahters. On the right side there is a over hang if you will of the membrane or skin. Some feathers this overhang is partially cut off from the grinding process, others you'll see the dye goes all the way down to shaft itself. To peel it, this will make it easier if you so choose to do it this way. Take an fine pointed exacto and run it right along side the barb's, straight down through the top along that short side edge just enough to score the membrane but NOT ENOUGH TO GO THROUGH THE PITH! That overhang will hang you up in the peeling process.
Now if you're feathers are really dry like mine due to a dry climate or home environment, I like to take a damp cloth and leave my feathers in there for a few minutes. The pith and membrane asborb water enough so it'll make this even easier yet and give you almost perfect peels every time. Too long and things get really soft and your feather dyes will start to bleed off into the fine towel you stole from your wifes cabinet :D . Grab ahold of the barbs on the nock side and pull gently towards the point end of the shaft (I do this when the things are NOT glued up) It should peel easily. This is a bit more labor intensive then gluing and probably not quite as durable as gluing pith to pith, but it's a bit easier getting things lined up.
If you're going to peel in th emiddle of a feather, score the skin 90 degrees acrossed the quil between the barbs and I personally like to go closest to the barb I'm leaving on the orignally quil or pith section, just be consistent here, what you do to one you do to the other.
Now to put this into usage terms, you're splicing red to that barred red feather. Score the right side of the quill on TOP the length you want to strip off. Strip off that section from the red quill.... remember to stop the strip, run that 90 degree score through the membrane but NOT THROUGH THE QUILL (pithy white stuff), if you do this you'll cut it in two, if you do it right you'll peel and the peeling will stop at this score mark, feathers or barbs attached to the membrane. Be aware of that over hang when you score acrossed the top or it'll keep peeling right there. Now you should have the section you want to add all and well ready to be added to the barbed section.
Do the exact same thing to the barb section. Make your length score, make your stop score and peel. Remember here again, if when peeling you are ripping up chunks of that white pith with the membrane, you're quill is too dry. It'll take some experimenting here how long to leave them in the damp towel to soften things up enough they dont rip and tear.
Now to add it, you might have to trim every so slightly the front edges of that peeled or stripped section if you're score mark wasnt square. No big deal, take your fly tying scissors and trim it up, or any sharp sharp scissors. You can glue this on with duco. I like to use older duco that is slightly thicker. I'm sure there is a glue out there that's better for this then duco and probably more durable, I havent done the testing with it to find out. Super glue would dry to fast for this not allowing you to get things lined up if it works at all, I havent tried. Epoxy might work well, again havent tried.
Apply glue to the underside and pith sections to be mated and mate them together. Try and keep the glue from the back of the barb on the feather you are adding too, in this case the red barred feather or you'll get a crappy joint. Takes a little practice here. Bob Burtons glue applicator is perfect for splicing like this, gives good glue lines here as it does when fletching. Dont try and dump it out of the bottl without crimping the tip down a little or go to a fly tying shop and get a glue dispensor or call Bob.
Initially you'll have to hang onto the feather while things set up enough to keep things aligned. Thats the reason for using the slightly thicker duco, might be a case made for epoxy here I dont really know. Once it's set up enough you think things are going to stay mated, set it aside and DONT TOUCH for an hour or two, overnite is even better. I usually cant wait that long.
now go ahead and fletch and burn, or chop what have you and fletch away.
Strip splice is done.
Be advised, a strip splice in this manner is atleast from my experimenting NOT as durable as a cut splice like you have there, where everything is left intact and glued together to make one with the only joint being the butt splice between the two quills. The problem most people have is alignment which is easily solved by taking the time to sort out and match your feathers and quills. Anyway you look at it, it's time and labor intensive however the butt splice VS the strip splice method is what I'd opt for if at all possible. Though most of what I've done is stripped spliced they just dont last forever, then again what does.
A very similar deal was written up in the June/July, 1996 edition of TBM. He doesnt go into the edge scoring though and I think it saves you feathers.
Now for a different take on the "strip" method. Cut off the section of feather you want to add quill and all. Let this section get happy in a damp towel for 10 minutes or so and scrape the pith from the underside. The feather you're going to add it too, just peel the top off like was mentioned. This method will give you the color along that edge (or right side overhang on a right winged feather) Preperation here on finding like quills is what you want to help align things. No different then anything else and you'll understand it once you give it a try. Glue the splice section to the quill you're splicing too just like you did above. If any gaps are between the membrane and quill they wont be seen due to the over hang on the one side and you can easily shoot glue into the other side between the pith and membrane if things lift up. This method gives you a true color along the outer edge, where say in splicing a white splice into a barred turkey feather, that outer rear edge is going to be white. Where you'll notice it is like doing yellow and red, where in the above mentioned method of strip splicing you'll end up, say you're splicing yellow onto a red feahter on the back end, a red base under the yellow. The amount of details you want to take it too is up too you, any of them all work.
Topic: want to try splicing???? (Read 931 times)
