I submitted a post awhile back about a replacement for petro. based products in my bird work (I am an admitted novice) and mention trying one of the fairly new Orange oil products.
I was mistaken as to the true use of mineral spirits. I thought they were used as a sort of final polish/degreaser but I understand they're more intended for water displacement. At any rate . . .
I am working on my fourth turkey of this winter and after washing in dawn detergent and cool water, I rinsed and patted off excessive water with towels. Then I used a fairly strong solution of Orange Glo concentrate (about 70 to 30 percent water) and soaked about 10 minutes.
It was outstanding. That petro shine was there only brighter. I dried with towels then blow-dryer (don't have a tumbler) and it is very clean and has that shine you see in the top-notch wildlife photography. The iridiscence of the feathers is great. I even seemed to notice a bit of reduction in drying time so that orange oil may displace water a bit or it could have been my imagination. There was no oily residue on the feathers at all though I suspect that could happen if you used too strong a soultion. Just a hypothesis.
From now on, I'll use an orange oil product as a final rinse. It cleaned great, shines great and smells awesome. And it is nontoxic of course. Maybe the next big thing? Who knows. Just wanted to report my findings to you all.
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That's great but as for price way to high for me and yet my birds are on the high end. I wash mine in tide w/bleach for all my birds and they come out the same. Reason, it's clean. Any bird will come looking great as long as it's clean and free of grease.
I'm not knocking it down but why spend so much when a person can get the same results with regular washing,degreasing and a good rinse?
Like Frank said, a bird will be shiny when it is CLEAN. I used to believe in that theory of some special substance (everybody had a favorite) being able to put a polish on bird feathers.
IT SIMPLY ISN'T TRUE!
What can you put on the glass of a mirror to make it reflect better? The answer is: NOTHING! Just get it CLEAN! The same goes for bird feathers.
On a positive note, I think it is commendable that you are thinking, experimenting, and putting forth the effort to get the turkeys to shine like you know they should. This is a good indicator that you are taking taxidermy seriously and will do well at it.
Nancy M.
I didn't use the actual Orange Glo brand. Just used that name because it's recognizable. I actually used a diff. brand from good ole Wal-Mart it was about $5 for 32 ounces of concentrate and I probably used 8-10 oz. for the turkey. So it's less expensive than you think.
And I do agree that getting the bird clean is the way to get the shine. I think the orange stuff helped it get cleaner than ordinary detergents. See what I'm saying? I would have never thought of using Tide with bleach. Guess I would have thought the bleach wouldn't be good on the feathers. I'm not doubting Frank in any way. Just surprised to hear it works.
Thanks Nancy for the positive reinforcement. I'm not really looking for a magic potion just something that cleans those birds without smelling foul. The orange stuff worked well but, who knows, after drying something else I may like that better. That's what makes this fun.