Originally posted by CBH:
I have found that after I carefully remove all of the feather that I can get with my pocket knife, a piece of sandpaper used carefully gets the rest of the feather and any glue left behind. After that, wipe the shaft clean with a little bit of lacquer thinner on a rag. The glue sticks much better than when I used alcohol to clean with.
+1 exact same method I use.
Only thing I would add is that you gently scrape back and forth over the old glue until your pretty sure it's all gone, then use a 400 grit sandpaper lightly rough up the area, then clean with paint thinner, laquer thinner. The glue will adhere so nice!