Stripped peacock quill

[jonathan27]

Hi can anybody recommend a good source of stripped peacock quill?

Jonathan

[Fishing Junkie]

Bill Mcilroy (Pearly Dabbler) in the trade section.

[casts_by_fly]

just strip your own. A pencil eraser run down the length of a quill a couple times will work fine. And you're not paying a premium for someone else to do it

thanks
rick

[stevekale]

Originally Posted by casts_by_fly

just strip your own. A pencil eraser run down the length of a quill a couple times will work fine. And you're not paying a premium for someone else to do it

thanks
rick

Far better to strip a whole eye at a time with Chlorox or other chlorine bleach (if Chlorox, 25% Chlorox and 75% water).

[emerger1981]

Originally Posted by stevekale

Far better to strip a whole eye at a time with Chlorox or other chlorine bleach (if Chlorox, 50% bleach and 50% water).

dont risk it mate.. just strip them as suggested with a rubber or you could end up with dissolved feathers

[stevekale]

Only if you don't pay attention. In any event, it's not like a peacock eye will break the bank.

[emerger1981]

Originally Posted by stevekale

Only if you don't pay attention. In any event, it's not like a peacock eye will break the bank.

only if you dont pay attention.. and a peacock eye wont break the bank means obviously you know it happens.. so like i said dont bother, just strip them with a rubber to save wasting your time and feathers

Tight lines

[stevekale]

Haven't had one go wrong yet.

[darwin]

Originally Posted by stevekale

Haven't had one go wrong yet.

Hi Steve,
How long do you leave the eye in the solution? I am going to sacrifice one just to see what happens.
thanks

[stevekale]

You absolutely don't want to be interrupted doing this. Chlorine bleach in the UK is weaker than Chlorox and so 50:50 bleach versus hot tap water is about right but you can start weaker to be more conservative. (With Chlorox 25%- 75% water is right) It will just take a little longer and happen more slowly. You need to also have a large "inspection jar" of clear tap water. You'll use this to dip the eye into it to check how much herl has been removed. You also need to make up a neutraliser bath of warm water with baking soda (1 US gallon plus 2 tablespoons of baking soda).

Take the peacock eye and dip into the bleach solution. Remove immediately when you notice it fizzing around the eye, rinse thoroughly and then place in inspection jar. If there's still fuzz swirl it in the bleach for a couple of seconds only. Rinse and inspect. Repeat if necessary. Once done leave to soak in the neutraliser for 10 minutes. It's a bit of trial and error for the first one but after that you can do multiple eyes at a time.