QuoteOriginally posted by dino:
 

QuoteOriginally posted by dino:
I had a guy bring me a bunch last fall.  They will work for smaller cuts but they are pretty small to make a solid 5".  Once you take them off the wing they look very similar to grey goose just smaller.  dino

Snow goose feathers are dark grey like canadian geese.  They are not white.  They look like grey canadians just smaller. [/b]

misinformation can cause many problems. This is a picture of a snow goose wing. They do have white feathers

This is a great thread.  I just got a bunch of goose wings from a hunting buddy and I am busily splitting / grinding / etc....  I plan to make up half a dozen rainy day arrows with the goose feathers.  I am going to have to read some threads on here for splicing and give that a try.  Bright pink or flourescent yellow spliced into the back of the goose feather would take care of the visibility issues.  

I am excited about being able to use them in wet weathers.  Living in western Washington means I get rained on as often as not when out in the field.  During late season is pretty much rains every day.

this is a picture of a wing from a "blue" as in snows and blues.


they have cool looking gold highlights on the older birds.

I just don't know why I have never considered waterfowl feather,what a great idea. Thanks for sharing this.

QuoteOriginally posted by DVSHUNTER:
misinformation can cause many problems. This is a picture of a snow goose wing. They do have white feathers  

The primary flight feathers aren't white though     The primary coverts, secondaries and tertiaries are white.

All birds have 10 primary flight feathers, with the exception of some songbirds that only have 9.  The last 2-3 more closely resemble secondary feathers though (equal amount of feather on both sides of the quill) and aren't as stiff.  I use 9-10 of them on geese and turkey and the secondaries on turkey.  The secondaries on Canada geese are only about 6" long total... work great for tangential fletching, but nearly impossibly to get a good grind and chop out of.

great post jeremy. The white feathers are small, but I have good luck with them on my arrows. Four in feathers are the normal for these.

Ok so there was a lot of learning that occured in this thread. I was hoping that the white feathers in a snow would make fletching but a few people have advised other wise. I just got back some Canadas from wtpoops that he was nice enought to grind for me. I thought I would put the most useful part to practice.

So look what I made tonight.



I think that it will work.

To cool !!! Great look !!

That looks cool.  Is the white snow goose or turkey.  Doesn't matter what it is still looks too cool.  Did you use a burner because they look perfect.

Bill the white is turkey.

I use a chopper. I cut them twice to get the clean edges.

What do you mean, "you cut them twice"?  I'm not understanding what you did there.

QuoteOriginally posted by Steve O:
What do you mean, "you cut them twice"?  I'm not understanding what you did there.

For some reason when I cut feathers in my chopper the quill on the bottom causes a little wave in the edge of the feather. So with the quill cut I chop them again to smoot the edges. I also found that if you cut them all to length so they are just inside the blade at the ends that it works better as well.

When splicing I use everything in full length. Once the splice is in place I chop them. It seems to make a little better cut. over the splice itself.

They just look smart.  How are they flying for you?

They fly great. I like goose because it is softer and seems to be affected less off the shelf. Now with the visability solved I may use them more. They do take a while to make though.  

Nice thread,lot new stuff to learn.

Sorry but I have more questions for you.  Are you using the three rivers cut in your chopper?  How long of a fletch are you cutting?  Lastly, how do you make the splice first and then chop them?

I am using a 3R chopper in the 4 inch sheild cut. I will take a few pictures of the proccess this evening.

Randy--that makes sense--my arrows will look better now.

He is a little bit of a build allong on how I have been splicing feathers.

I start of with full lenght or uncut feathers.



I start by cuting the barbs off of the quill with a razor blade and grind the base smooth with a dremel tool.




Next I grind all of the soft white material out of the white peice leaving only the thin hard outer layer of the feather.



Use a little supper glue to glue the white feather to the base(or quill) of the goose feather. Make sure that the white feather barbs and the goose barbs are touching or they will not lock together. I use my bitz clamp to make sure that everything is aligned while glue. It can be done by hand though.





Now you have a spliced feather that just has to be cut or burnned to shape.

Next You Chop.

 

After the first time my chopper leaves a little wave in the feather so I cut it one more time to even that out.

 

This one did not turn out perfect but hey it works.

 

Then after many hours you get this