I am working on finishing a rod for my brother. Just got the feather inlay lefy.

Anyhow, working off a pdf of Terry's. The other night I practiced with feathers and didn't have a lot of luck.....this time I used permagloss....It worked much better but the sides of the feather would just not stay down. Any ideas here on what to do. I was trying to get the sides of the feather to wrap around the blank. However they kept popping back. If that makes sence.....Is there a good technique to get this accomplished?

Any help would be very appreciated. I ended up taking it off and doing an underwrap with small trim bands which looks real good. I got cp on the underwrap, and when it drys I want to try again. But this time I want to get it right!

Myself, I use water mixed with a bit of white glue. I saturate the feathers and arrange them on the blank. However, sometimes the sides of the feather 'pop up; and won't stay down. I then take a toothpick and press them back down, which becomes easier as the feathers become tackier due to the water/glue. Eventually, then stay down, even if I have to hold them down with the toothpick for a bit. Afterwords, when I apply a coat of LS over everything, it's all good. I'm sure there's an easier or more effective way, but this is what I've found works for me and it's simple.

As for the underwrap, here's what I do and it works for me. Underwrap, thin coat of LS, feathers/decal/inscription, final topcoat of LS.

What I have done when dealing with obnoxious feathers or hair, coat it with CP, then wrap the whole thing with monofilament line with just enough gap between wraps to hold down what you need, say about 1/16"-1/8". When almost dry, gently pull up the mono and then finish as normal when fully dry. The dents the mono leaves will become invisible when finish is applied.

I clean the feathers under hot water before using. Tends to make them a little softer. I use elmers wood glue thinned with water and brush them with a flex coat brush. The wood glue will soften a little if they are not good brushing over with water.

Here is a tip that may help you. Most of the base feathers I use have very stiff stems and those feathers are the ones that will not lay down easily. try this

Hold the feather in -place on the rod and get a TRASH BAG TIE, the ones that are brown or white with a slight wax feel to them. These ties are best because epoxy and permagloss will not stick to well to them. Wrap the feather in place near the base of the feather where the edges will not lay down, with the twist tie. On the bottom, twist the tie securing the feather down against the rod. Now postion it perfectly in place and you can roate the feather to straighten it by pushing the bottom of the tie and use a needle to apply some permagloss to straighten it. Coat it with permagloss and now the feather is laying nicely against the rod where you want it.

Now here is the guessing part, allow the permagloss to dry for about 15 minutes, maybe 20. Remove the tie and as you can see, you can still slighlty straighten the feather if it is not down in place. Using your FINGER (NO NEEDLES OR TOOLS) you can push down the edges of the feather if they pop up and continue to push them down until permagloss sits up. Most of the time, the feather is tacked in place and pushing the edges down is NOT USUALLY neccessary.

Allow to dry and add more feathers. ALLOW THE BASE FEATHER TO COMPLETELY DRY before applying more permagloss to prevent the edges popping up again.

I will post a picture of this for you in about 10 minutes.

terry




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2006 01:12PM by terry henson.

It is putting @#$$% in my message and the word it is changing is base....? I did not use foul language in this post..............

I dunk my feathers into Gudebrod 811 thinned with isopropyl alcohol, and having them stay down has not been a problem, although I've only used very flexible/soft feathers when I was letting them curve around the blank. If you use hot water to soften those feathers as recommended above, make sure the inlay is completely dry before finishing with epoxy or you will get an oil-slick look on your finish.

I have used a piece of size A binding thread run around the blank a few times and back on itself to hold down that #@^*% feather. Once the CP begins to get tacky , very gently remove the thread. There may be a few small bands where the thread was but your next coat of CP covers that. Don't tie it too tight. Just enough presure to get that feather to stay in place.

Terry I used a pdf that you made to guide me along....I went with the permagloss (man is that stuff sticky)...I got it to stay...These are all good suggestions. I let it set and just coated with ls supreme. That stuff is real thin....Could hardly believe it clear too....

I use A thread similar to Mark but I use single loops with hackle pliers or similar weight attached. As Mark says once the CP or in my case Permagloss gets tacky I lift the weight and if there is no feather movement I remove the thread.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

Jeffrey,
I picked up a trick from Andy Snedden, it's something I've picked up from more than one source here and on more than one factor in rod building. Both of us use oil base urethane to lay down my feathers and fussing over it like you appear to be doing doesn't help. Lay down your feather and get them positioned down as best you can, than go have some coffee, work on another rod or have a beer and come back and lay things down again and keep checking it every once in a while. Ultimately as your median tacks up more feather will lay down in it till it all does.