# Feather pen blanks making problems



## Woodguy95 (Dec 15, 2015)

Hello everyone,
I first want to thank you all for the previous help on how to start making feather pen blanks and finishing pens.

So I gave it a try to making pheasant feathers pen blanks. From what I did put in the pressure pot tonight I have the impression it will look awfull... I've put as an attachement the feathers I bought to give it a try...

From what I undestood by making my first try is that the fat part(the one that attaches on the pheasant) cannot be in the pen blank so I need to cut it previous to gluing on the tube since it is too thick and would stick out on the finished pen blank.

Question, Since these feathers are wide how do I get them to sit properly on the tube itself? I attach both ends on a piece of wood just like Shane Whitlock shows in his tuto. The thing is that once done the feather is tangeant to the tube and is not getting the curve of the tube.

Thanks in advance for the answers
Again sorry for the mistakes I am not a native english speaker...


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## low_48 (Dec 16, 2015)

Aren't the feathers really wide? My only experience with pheasant feathers was stripping them off so the bird could go into the oven. We had lots of them around the farm, but they have almost disappeared since the farmers only grow corn and soybeans, no winter habitat. Another sad nature story!


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## plantman (Dec 16, 2015)

You are going to have trouble trying to use those large tail feathers unless you cut them apart and remove the quills. What you want are the head, neck, or body feathers, as they are much smaller and have more color variety in them. I have always bought complete pheasant pelts and than I was able to pick and choose the feathers and colors I wanted. The smaller feathers have smaller quills so they will sit properly on your blank. I would suggest purchasing the Lady Amherst or some other colorful fowl to give you a wider choice of colors on one pelt. A whole male pheasant pelt will also give you many more colors than just the tail feathers will.  Jim  S


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