Photo Guide to Imping

[Jay]

As I said in the Feather, Feathers everywhere thread I would throw up a photo guide to imping. This is my meathod and it works extreamly well, though I am sure there are others. In the pics I substituted a dental drill for a small nail as I couldnt find my bag of drills and I was to lazy to use glue. For glue 5min epoxy or hot glue can be used, but I have found fly tying head cement to work extreamly well.


You will need. A bird with a broken feather, a replacement feather that has been molted, a harris hawk tail feather to be made into a pin, glue or some sort, an exacto knife, and a dental drill.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/hazardpaintball2/1.jpg


Aline the molted feather over the broken one so that the bottom of the molted feather is even with others in the area. Now cut the molted feather where the broken one ends.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/hazardpaintball2/2.jpg


Take the dental drill and hollow out the inside of both the cut feather that will be attached and the broken one on the bird so that a pin can be inserted into both.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/hazardpaintball2/3.jpg


Now take the Harris Hawk feather and cut a pin that will fit inside both the broken shaft and the new cut one that you just hollowed out.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/hazardpaintball2/4.jpg


Insert this pin into the shaft of the broken feather. Then take the new feather and inserit it on the other end of the pin. If it all fits you can start to glue. If not work on it untill you have a good fit.

If the pin fit glue the pin into the broken feather.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/hazardpaintball2/5.jpg

Now put some glue on the other end of the pin and attach the new feather.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/hazardpaintball2/6.jpg

If you did it right it should look like this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/hazardpaintball2/7.jpg

[Varmint]

Can you show us a pic of the finished HH feather Jay? :wink:

Why do you cut the quills straight? most people cut them at 45 degree's to stop the donor feather from twisting.Is there any reason you do it this way?

again i use sharp side cutters inserted at the same angle as the webbing to cut the feather, and the same with the donor feather, the end result is invisible.

Why do you imp at the point of the feather break? especially if the quill is so narrow?
why not cut the broken feather higher up and imp the moulted feather at a point where the feather quill bore is thicker allowing for a thicker , stronger needle?

Is there any reason that your Imping needle is so short? a longer needle offers more support to the feather overall.

What material do you use as a pin? i tend to use either carbon fibre (old fishing rod tips, or fibre Glass rod)

Not Knocking your effort mate, this site is all about sharing knowledge, and maybe we can help each other here a little and share our experiences with other members?

Good effort Jay!

[Sparrow Hawker]

Hi Jay,

Great thread, great pics well done.

All The Best,

HH

[Jay]

Ok its not the best imping job, it was somthing I whipped up in 5min with some of the smaller feathers I had sitting around. I wasnt going to waste the good ones.

For a pin I use a Harris Hawk feather shaft, as stated above. The reason that I did not cut the broken feather up higher and use a longer pin is because I didnt want to waste material. I have a limmited amound of HH feathers so I cut a small section that I wouldnt use else where and made it shorter. Also I used a RT feather that I would probly never bother imping even if it did break since it is so small.

As for cutting at an anlge, I didnt not do this as I was never taught to do it. Once the adhesive is put in place the feather should not rotate. This is why I like fly tying head cement, it drys in under 3min.

If this were a real bird I would take more time in the work, to achive the invisible connection,

[Hawkmaster]

Well done mate!

I will moves this to our Permanent archive too if that is OK?

[Varmint]

Good stuff Jay!

I cut at an angle cause even the best glue in the world wont stop some donor feathers from wanting to rotate, especially primaries!

It makes no difference to the job as a whole but last's much better.

Another tip is to only apply glue around the joint rather than the whole needle, and if the feather breaks or gets damaged again, you can remove the donor feather at the Imp point and replace!

Another fast fix is to "Splice" feathers.

This isn't as neat a job but can be utilised where a donor feather isn't available.

Basically you cut a section of an old feather approx 2 inch long utilising a section with a greater quill thickness than that of the damaged feather (any feather will do, seagull whatever?) then remove the outer webbing.

Split the feather in half (Long ways) and remove the pulp from both inside parts, then using both half's like a case, encase the broken feather quill glueing both parts both on top and below. (I like super glue)

Makes a great running repair!

[JapaneseShiba]

Jay, thank you so much! This is really great and I have saved it myself! I (and probably a lot of other people) really appeciate you taking the time to put this up!!

Great stuff! :)

[Austin]

Thanks for the color photos and your time in sending them to the site. I think it helps the apprentinces when they can see this in color and on a larger scale than just in a book.

[Wightwings]

nice thread :mrgreen:

[HawkNorth]

i was interested in how far up the feather could be imped

[Miguel]

I would say as above has you can... At least that's how I do it...

[Finnish]

Good post Jay.