inlay feathers

[jtysone]

Where do you guys get your feathers, in small amounts, to do inlay? I have check all the sites that i get building stuff from with no luck. Can i use fly tying feathers. josh

[Chris Smith]

You will see alot of jungle **** feathers inlayed on rods. The Fish Hawk has small packs of about ten for $6-7 also some people use guinea feathers which are even cheaper. For my personal rods I tend to use grizzly saddle and Jungle ****, they look great and give the rod another personal touch.

Chris

[GonetoSeed]

I use fly tying feathers, feathers from Michaels, feathers I find in the yard, Bluejay wing feathers are neat (cleaned with alcohol) and feathers that hunter friends give me.

If you are looking for some exotics, try http://www.siskiyouaviary.com/ they work with builders.

[GUTHOOKED]

I get most of mine from fly tying suppliers. Local fly shops and even BPS carry a pretty good selection. Jungle ****, golden pheasant, ringneck pheasant, partridge, and many others inlay well and are available at most any fly shop.

[Ivan]

Guttooked at the KFD you told me that you use color preserver too set your feathers can anything else be used?

[GUTHOOKED]

I would imagine that most any kind of adhesive COULD be used, as long as it dries clear. So far, I have tried color preserver, Permagloss, varnish, and epoxy wrap finish. The Permagloss and varnish didn't work out very well - they get sticky too fast. Epoxy worked okay. It gives you a much longer working time than CP, but is a bit harder to work with. Every time you lay in a feather, the previous one moves. Also, with epoxy, Permagloss, or varnish the feathers tend to keep that translucent "wet" look, while they usually return to their natural color with CP. This can be good or bad, depending on the look you are trying for. I definitely prefer the CP. I use Gudebrod 811 thinned to about 2 parts CP, 1 part isopropyl alcohol. This will dry clear and is pretty easy to work with. You usually have enough working time to get the feather where you want it, but it sets up fast enough that you can set a feather or two, then let them dry before you apply the next.

[Ivan]

Then CP it is!