first try with feathers

[.ghoti.]

Light blue variegated thread wrap with feather spider on a rod for my brother

[gr8outdoorz]

Sharp looking work ghoti!! That looks awesome!

I have to ask how you adhere the feathers to the wraps for applying finish?

[.ghoti.]

That took some experimentation. Here's what I learned by screwing it up several times.

Don't try to put feathers on a bare rod blank.

Coat the thread with two coats of CP, and let dry completely

Layout the pattern on a piece of painters tape, sticky side up.

Saturate feather in CP mixed 50/50 with DNA.

Place one feather at a time, allowing the previous feather to dry.

Carefully coated the dried feather pattern with full strength CP.

When dry, apply epoxy.

That's what I've come up with. There are probably better ways to do this.

The pic above show the thing almost finished. I have one more feather piece trimmed out to make a body.

I'll put up a pic of the finished product when I get back  on this project. It's on hold right now.

[gr8outdoorz]

Man I don't even want to know how many tries it took to figure that process out! Hahaha! Great work ghoti!

[buzzed bait]

WHOA, that's cool ghoti!!

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Feather work and weaves are very labor intensive and intricate. Quite an undertaking. 

[Dwight Hottle]

Looks like your typical spider wire rod to me. Just kidding. Beautiful work. 

[.ghoti.]

3 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Looks like your typical spider wire rod to me. Just kidding. Beautiful work. 

I sent the pic to my brother. He said awesome, but I ain't putting Spiderwire on it.

Dwight, you and my brother both have strange minds. LOL

[FD.]

Nice work Gary.  I have several feathers the Hawk that lives in my yard has donated.  I have been looking at them for over a year trying to figure out how to get them on a blank.  Thanks for adding something else to my list...

[roadwarrior]

Wow!  That's cool.

 

[.ghoti.]

20 hours ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

Feather work and weaves are very labor intensive and intricate. Quite an undertaking. 

I h aven't attempted a weave, and in all reality, probably never will. Feather work, now I've made most of the mistakes, will be something I do more of. Didn't  say I've made all of the mistakes.  I'm quite sure I  can figure  out a few  more ways  to  screw  the pooch.  It does take some time, so  it  won't  be  something I do  on  every rod.

I don't know how far I'm going to get into thread work. I can do a tiger wrap. Except for the first attempt, they have turned out fairly nice. I'd show you a pic of my first three diamond type  wraps,  but you'd  just laugh at me.  I laughed at them,  until  I thought  about how  much  time I  spent  on them.  

Thanks Lee. And, you are welcome. LOL

[MickD]

I have done a number of feather inlays, and they can be intricate, or pretty simple.  What I've found to work well is:

1.  Develop your pattern in advance  so you won't be designing while applying. I don't use painters tape, just put the layers in place on a tabletop using tweezers.

2.  Always work one layer at a time.  You can do multiple feathers, but not multiple layers at one time.

3. I've not applied over wrap, and expect the advise to lay a solid layer of CP or epoxy is good advice.

4. I put a generous layer of CP undiluted down for a receiver for the feathers.  Place them carefully, and using a needle or other appropriate tool, move them and "dress" them as you want for best appearance.

5. Let the first layer dry, then put another coat of CP down for the next layer and repeat for all subsequent layers.

6. The feathers will all be well saturated with CP from the laying process, so epoxy may now be added.  Often the inlay will be bumpy.  After two coats of epoxy, you can sand or cut off the bumps and recoat as necessary to get a smooth final finish. 

It takes time, but depending on the design, can be pretty easy.