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I just want to thank WarmSoda for taking all this time and effort to educate us =) A quilt built with the 20/20 hindsight of your experience will take less time and effort and likely be of higher...

Soda - Sounds really great!! I'm so happy you're doing this - thank you!

When completed, please weigh the entire project before you run it through the tumble drier and after - I'm not sure if you...

Just noticed this video reply to my cattail down video on Youtube - this guy made a pillow w/ it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwhjhyWWj9U

Soda this is great!! You will likely be the first large scale project using this material that is documented that anyone will be able to find :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Make sure you can refill...

LOL SO TRUE!! I wish my parents would have kicked me a bit more and forced me to see more things early on. When I have kids they are gonna be in trouble... if I ever get around to having them (yet...

It is one of those "Boy I wish I started this earlier in life" sort of things...

Add that to Beekeeping, raising chickens, gardening, learning about (fill-in-the-blank-here), etc etc etc...

Yes / Yes / Yes

I just drove past a pond earlier today. There are STILL cattails half popped with plenty of fluff on them.

If they start to "pop" on their own they are WAYYY ripe...

If it...

I think the FATTER the head the longer each "bit of fluff" is and thus loftier... just a hypothesis - untested so take it at face value...

If that is true, look for the largest diameter heads you...

Very cool mask 1st off!
Thank for sharing secondly!

I'm curious if you dried the heads first or not - 5 heads seems like a LOT of cattail fluff to me! I found that 1 head easily filled a large...

I did a compression and volume test some time ago (in this thread if I'm not mistaken) where I packed as much of the stuff into a film canister as I could and left it for some time. It did return to...

Burrr its cold out here on the east coast....

Wish I had me a cattail under quilt...

:rolleyes:

Anything cool (or warm?) happening?

Perhaps good for a wash / re-fluff test?? :) How is the compressibility / loft?

Ohh I so can't wait for your report!!

Did you weight it pre-stuff? I bet the fluff lightens up a bit after you dry it.

How many cattails did you need?

Can you send pics?? Psyched!
...

I don't think they should be any different than the ones that are ready to pop.

We're still doing testing so nobody knows how well this really works or how long it will last ... or how much you...

If your oven has a pilot lite you don't even need to turn it on.

You can dehydrate at ~150-160 very quickly.

Re: Microwave - this will kill them 4 sure - so will a good drying :)

Excited :) ...

You can put me down for KerMegan also - very motivated. I'm excited to see what comes out of it!

Aw heck you're welcome but there really isn't any need to thank me - Like a large majority of the people here I just like to think outside of the box (or the tent for that matter!) - it comes with...

Thumbs-Up! Thanks for keeping on top of this - I'm REALLY interested in learning from the people who really "know" how well this stuff works as an alternative.

Be well,

XexorZ

Really? Excellent!! I guess you love building gear! I'll see if I can't get you a couple dozen heads to play with. Might take me a bit - not off to the swamps in the current schedule :)

OK! Its been about 5 or so days under heavy compression. I just dumped my film canister of fluff out into a mason jar and shook it up good. It completely filled the jar :-)

I figure its about...

Yuppers :-) I was just saying that if the Min and Max are the same then the Min or Max equals the Average which would mean that the function of the curve is just a constant. The Dx of a constant is...

Or equal to 200 assuming that the Min is also 200....

Sorry :-) This was supposed to be humorous and was when I thought of it... how maths can ever be funny is beyond me... oh wait!

So i and ╥...

Excellent work!

Perhaps some overstuffing (to accommodate the settling?)

-XexorZ

That's really strange - I think the one you're trying to harvest from isn't ready yet - when they are ready to "pop" the fuzz pretty much jumps off the cattail.

Check out this video:
...

You can still gather them up today - just let them dry for a few days before you use them.

-XexorZ

Great idea! Can anyone do this one? I'm not going to be gathering any for a bit and don't have enough to fill my non-ultralight extra large stuff...

-XexorZ

Brilliant!

This stuff flys EVERYWHERE so I'd take that screen out of its frame and make it fit a 5 gal bucket with a spacer on the bottom. Put the fuzz in the 5 gal bucket and the stuff should...

Actually these kids on youtube already did my test... but they must have one heck of a loose pile of the stuff!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqqyMNOuiws

I did a flammability test (will redo with video soon) - my findings are sort of scary - but I dunno....

I made a VERY loose pile of this stuff and hit it with a spark from my firesteel. POOF. ...

Note to self: Do not harvest Cattails from most of New Jersey's water :-)

I got my current batch from a clean spot and will eventually do some skin tests. Thanks for the info!!

XexorZ
(Human...

Not that this is a problem (I half expected it) but I just found some cattail moth larva in my pile-o-fuzz.

The cattail moth lays its eggs on cattails.
...

Wendigo - No worries, glad you found it interesting. Also - 12 isn't a whole lot of cattails!

HappyCamper - Thanks - will do!

This is the time of year to do it - the cattails are all...

Don't you know that only noobs are allowed to come up with neat ideas? ;-)

AngrySparrow - Thanks for the warm welcome! In the interest of good science (which I will fail to achieve here... guaranteed) are there any guidelines of how much force should be exerted per square...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMW5fx2_gI8

QMW5fx2_gI8

Hi all - thanks for the input thus far - keep it coming!

AnimalControl - No problem and no worries :-) I hope this works out cause it would be really neat to bring something with potential...

Hi Everybody,

This is my first post so I will open w/ a bit out how I got here before I get to my point (title). Also - thanks to the operator(s) and active members of this place for a great...