Plucking the down yourself....

[oetzi]

...and making a quilt with it.
I stumbled over this and it worth sharing:
http://www.gassebol.se/quilt_down.htm

[Redtail]

Cool instructions, thanks for sharing. I was wondering how many geese/ducks it would take to make a quilt. Per that guy you get about an ounce (30g) per goose. I wonder if you need to sterilize it or something like the suppliers do.

[headchange4u]

I thought down was mainly harvested from nests of the birds and not by killing them.

[Coffee]

No I'm pretty sure they kill them. When I ordered down the product sheet had down for a few hundred dollors an oz that was collected from the nests.

[Oh-No]

When I ordered down the product sheet had down for a few hundred dollors an oz that was collected from the nests.

I believe that is eider down, collected from nests. I presume that
eider ducks are protected, thus collecting from nests is the only
way eider down is obtained.

[skar578]

yea, i agree with engineer and oh-no. i believe eider down is the best, because it acts like hook and loop amongst itself and has great insulations properties. and since its protected, they must collect it without killing or harming them.


but i thought they dont kill them, only hurt the ducks (like thats any better).

[Dutch]

Now that is taking DIY to the plucking extreme.

[pure_mahem]

I wonder if you can get the same amount of down off of a domestic goose? May be eating a lot of goose in the future.

[Annie]

Well, I'm not sure how they do it today but when I was growing up, my grandmother would pick up the goose, pluck a few handfulls of down, then let it go! We had BIG old down pillows and featherbeds from that down, and we never killed the geese.

Sometimes I wished she'd kill them.. they're mean as hornets!
You think being attacked by a dog is bad?
Those geese will give a kid nightmares for life! ::laughing:::

[headchange4u]

Well, I'm not sure how they do it today but when I was growing up, my grandmother would pick up the goose, pluck a few handfulls of down, then let it go! We had BIG old down pillows and featherbeds from that down, and we never killed the geese.

Sometimes I wished she'd kill them.. they're mean as hornets!
You think being attacked by a dog is bad?
Those geese will give a kid nightmares for life! ::laughing:::

No wonder they were mean. I might be a little ticked off is someone grabbed me and ripped out my hair.