Hey, i was wondering how you guys set your feathers? With cardboard or string...? And how long do i leave them b4 the bird is dry (stiff)? Thanks for your help!
Mike
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I set my wings this way on flying mounts. Take a piece of 12ga. wire run a piece of 1"neck matereal onto it ,but one end into boby under wing & bend it to the shape of the wing. Then take T-pins & pin the wing to the form.Your wing & bird should be dry in about a week.
If your are doing a turkey I use this same method on all my turkeys (close&open wing). Turkeys will take longer to dry if you are usening caulk in them. Mounted one last weekend & it is still not 100% dry on the back pad.
I used cardboard for years until I tried the wire/string method as explained by Stefan Savides in Breakthrough Issue 77. It works great and I can get the wings done much quicker. I have started on mallard size and smaller not completely inverting the wing. I usually invert to just past the humerus and then I open up the radius/ulna area just enough to get a scraping tool and tweezers down in there. I can pull all the meat out and leave the feathers attached to the bone. This gives a much nicer wing.