My lovely wife has just given me the green light to harvest down from two king-sized comforters. Any ballpark guesses as to how much might be in there? I know that there are a lot of variables, mostly curious to see if I can get enough for a full-length uq rated close to zero....thanks!
I've made a few and they vary dramaticly it both volume and quality. The last one I used contained enough for 3 quilts and was absolutely fantastic, exactly like the high end down used in sleeping bags. The one before that was garbage. My suggestion is have a good feel, if you feel a feather its likely useless unless car camping.
One of them looks to be pure white down with zero feathers. The other, not quite as nice.
The chances are that you'll be able to make a quilt from the higher quality one alone. A zero degree full length will require lots of down so be prepared to harvest a good quality pillow or a portion of another decent comforter.
Personally I wouldn't bother with the lower quality one, I have made quilts in the past and I've just not used them. It was good practice though, which has kinda proved invaluable.
Good luck though, quilts are pretty difficult but incredibly rewarding.
An easy way to guesstimate the amount of down is to measure lenght x width x loft of each one to get the volume of each quilt. Next divide each one by your guess of down quality (550, 650, 850 etc) and that will be approximate number of ounces in each. That is a ballpark to use. Factors like contruction method - caro vs sewn through for example will play into the mix.
As an example: A quilt 82" by 64" with an average loft of 1.5" will have 7872 cubic inches approximately. If it looks like lower quality 550FP then divide 7872/550 = about 14.3 ounces. If it was 850 FP down there would be just under 9.3 ounces.
If you can, wash the down either before or after it is re-purposed to restore the loft and effectiveness. If you wash it before you harvest, check to make sure the shell has no holes and is strong enough to take a washing (don't ask me how I know)
I recently did a comforter and old winter bag into new 2 TQs and an UQ, I found the down behaved like lower quality than I expected it to but it still made awesome quilts. (Still have about 5 ounces left for another UQ)
Depending on the thickness (loft) of each of those Kingsize comforters, and length of the underquilt you might be able to get enough down out of one. An example winter full length underquilt may take 13 ounces of 850 down - and then up to 30% overstuff could bring it to over 17 ounces. A torso lenght may take 10-13 ounces
Hope that helps
Well, still a work in progress....the "good" down is great, but I haven't figured out my transfer method. Working in ice shanty, harvesting by hand with a PVC tube, lost a fair amount of down...no idea how anyone does this without it looking like a snowstorm!
There are a few ways to do it. Take a look at how I did it on my you tube site.
My ego said, SURE you can.
Half way in my body said OH NO YOU CAN'T
Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.
My YouTube
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks