On 22 Oct 2006 18:02:14 -0700, "
wrote:

Hi everyone.

I have a dumb question. I went to my wife's cousin's house yesterday,
and he had been duck hunting that morning. He had some mallard hens,
and few Canadian Geese eh? He let me pick over them for some tying
materials. I ended up with some wing quills and some mallard flank
feathers, enough to keep me stocked for a season on duck. So anyway my
dumb newbie question is, do I need to do anything a kin to tanning them
of treat them anyway before using them? My gut says probably not, they
are on my workbench in my basement drying out right now as they spent
last night in a ziplock which was fairly damp. These are all plucked
with no skin attached. Any thoughts or should I just start tying?

Thanks,
-Ethan

You don't need to treat them per se, particularly if you're not planning on
dyeing any of them, but to avoid a critter bloom in your materials cache it's
usually a good idea to bag the feathers and then put the bag in the freezer
for a couple of days (at least). Some folks add in a microwave cycle but a
week of freezing such things has worked for me...

Cheers

/daytripper