GN feather grinding gig is the bomb

[Don Batten]

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
 
 

[Billy]

I like!!! Nice job    

What if you grind all the pulp off? Is there a reason to not remove all the white stuff?

[vtmtnman]

Looks great.I'm building myself a grinding jig very soon.

[Chris Surtees]

Nice looking fletching your making      

[Autumnarcher]

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.

[John Dill]

Good looking feathers there! Where did you get them shafts?(LOL)

[DV of WI]

Did you ritz die the feathers? They look great.

[MCNSC]

With the rite dye did you just follow the package instructions or are there any secrets. Great looking feathers.
Mike

[Don Batten]

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

[2fletch]

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?

[maineac]

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.

[Don Batten]

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

[A.S.]

Those have "10 ring" written all over them!!