How close for feather burning?

[kat]

I would like to try splicing some feathers, and then use a feather burner to trim them.
In reading the literature on them, it cautions not to touch the shaft.  How far away do you need to stay?  It would seem like it would make a neater job if you could burn them close to the shaft.

[MAGICMAN]

If you get to close to the shaft like I tend to do you will burn or smoke the shaft. The best way is to get your shape you want and shape it to be about 1/8" away from shaft, when you burn it come back w/ a sharp pair of scissors or something & trim the 1/8' thats left by hand. This will get you a clean looking burn without the brown residue on your shafts.

[Big Dave]

If you are using a crown dip or wraps and you touch it it will burn it and it doesn't look very good. If you are just using alum. shafts you might get away with it . I don't know about carbon shafts. David

[Killdeer]

The wire expands when it gets hot, so you set it a tad further away than you think you should to allow for that. Then jink it a little closer 'til it's perfect. Let the wire get really hot and do a fast pass to prevent catching the arrow on fire.

It helps to disable the smoke detector, too.  :D  
Killdeer