Aiden James Lures Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Has anyone found a supplier for consistently good Marabou feathers? Maybe I should define 'good': We use a single feather for our mouse lure tails, and they must be long, and have skinny shanks. Fluffy isn't as important as long and skinny. Also, I would like to buy them loose, instead of string bound at the top. They are tough to get apart without damaging them. Maybe I am doing it wrong? Normally I post in hard baits, but I know you guys are the feather experts! Thanks in advance for the help. John Aiden James Lures http://AJLures.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassrecord Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Has anyone found a supplier for consistently good Marabou feathers? Maybe I should define 'good': We use a single feather for our mouse lure tails, and they must be long, and have skinny shanks. Fluffy isn't as important as long and skinny. Also, I would like to buy them loose, instead of string bound at the top. They are tough to get apart without damaging them. Maybe I am doing it wrong? Normally I post in hard baits, but I know you guys are the feather experts! Thanks in advance for the help. John Aiden James Lures http://AJLures.com I'm nowhere near a feather expert! But I'll comment<g>. Several years ago I toured Wapsi at Mountain Home, Arkansas. After looking at all their hair and feather dyeing and drying equipment, I was told that they did about 75% of all hair and feather dyeing for the world wide fly fishing industry. I suggest you contact them with a request for quotation to fit your specs. That being said since marabou we use today (not from illegal storks) is an immature chicken feather that has not formed its barbules yet, it sounds like you want what will become an eventual long feather that is in the middle of its growth cycle. That's like saying you some special condition. This feather may be hard to find in the quality, or in the price or in the consistency that you want. My guess is that when a feather merchant plucks his fowl, he wants to sell either long feathers for the salt water fly trade or marabou for the wet fly trade and nothing in between. But perhaps there is a fly tying technique you can use to work around supplier shortcomings - trimming marabou. Instead of scissor cutting marabou which looks unnatural in water, fly tyers with appropriate finger nails pinch marabou to form the length or shape they are seeking. I'm not good at it but perhaps you can pinch shape marabou to make it as consistent and skinny as you want it to be. Strung vs. loose. I haven't bought loose marabou but loose hackle is almost like orchard run, ie. all different sizes and shapes. It looked like they must have plucked the whole bird and sent me everything <g>. It was too labor intensive for me. Loose makes sense if selling all sizes while strung saves labor for separate feathers and marabou. Stringing is done before dying, so some marabou is still white when the string is removed. The stitching can be easily undone if you can find the loose end like stitching on old potato sacks. Since both the loose and strung dye drying process is running pounds of wet feathers through commercial dryers for minutes or even hours, my guess is that strung marabou will hold up better than loose, but I could be wrong. Don't know if these muses help or not. Let us know what you find out. Good luck. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden James Lures Posted March 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 I'm nowhere near a feather expert! But I'll comment<g>. Several years ago I toured Wapsi at Mountain Home, Arkansas. After looking at all their hair and feather dyeing and drying equipment, I was told that they did about 75% of all hair and feather dyeing for the world wide fly fishing industry. I suggest you contact them with a request for quotation to fit your specs. That being said since marabou we use today (not from illegal storks) is an immature chicken feather that has not formed its barbules yet, it sounds like you want what will become an eventual long feather that is in the middle of its growth cycle. That's like saying you some special condition. This feather may be hard to find in the quality, or in the price or in the consistency that you want. My guess is that when a feather merchant plucks his fowl, he wants to sell either long feathers for the salt water fly trade or marabou for the wet fly trade and nothing in between. But perhaps there is a fly tying technique you can use to work around supplier shortcomings - trimming marabou. Instead of scissor cutting marabou which looks unnatural in water, fly tyers with appropriate finger nails pinch marabou to form the length or shape they are seeking. I'm not good at it but perhaps you can pinch shape marabou to make it as consistent and skinny as you want it to be. Strung vs. loose. I haven't bought loose marabou but loose hackle is almost like orchard run, ie. all different sizes and shapes. It looked like they must have plucked the whole bird and sent me everything <g>. It was too labor intensive for me. Loose makes sense if selling all sizes while strung saves labor for separate feathers and marabou. Stringing is done before dying, so some marabou is still white when the string is removed. The stitching can be easily undone if you can find the loose end like stitching on old potato sacks. Since both the loose and strung dye drying process is running pounds of wet feathers through commercial dryers for minutes or even hours, my guess is that strung marabou will hold up better than loose, but I could be wrong. Don't know if these muses help or not. Let us know what you find out. Good luck. John Thanks for the tips. I think you just saved me a bunch of time messing with loose feathers. I will check out Wapsi. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
