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[TheFishingLad]

An old friend had given me a large fly tying kit, loads of feathers and raw materials. UnfortunTely the older gentleman that have them to me smoked like a chimney, resulting in everything smelling awful to the point 5 minutes in, headache. So without ruining the feathers or materials, how would you go about cleaning them?

Cheers,

Mike
 
Title Edit

[Rieber]

If the vise and tools were of high quality and value, I would was them in a bucket and CLR then dish soap or even in the dishwasher.

Wash the hooks and beads in CLR then dish soap.

The rest throw away. I wouldn't bring that smoke smell crap in my house.

Or give it to a smoker friend or someone you know.

[TheFishingLad]

If the vise and tools were of high quality and value, I would was them in a bucket and CLR then dish soap or even in the dishwasher.

Wash the hooks and beads in CLR then dish soap.

The rest throw away. I wouldn't bring that smoke smell crap in my house.

Or give it to a smoker friend or someone you know.

Ah thats a shame, so many materials. I suppose Ill muck about and see what I can do; though I feel you have the right idea.

[HOOK]

With feathers or skins you could try washing them with soap and water. Google it and you'll find some info. Synthetics your probably better off just tossing because I doubt washing would remove the smell, it may not even remove it from the feathers but it's worth a shot.

good luck

[Rieber]

There is an odour adsorbsion mineral called Zeolite that you can try use. This mineral used to be marketted under something called non scents or something like that. This stuff was mined/collected just outside of Princeton and the packaging company was a small shop in Surrey.

Odours were trapped in the mineral through ion exchange and the stuff really worked quite well. I was involved with a start-up company that didn't go anywhere but we tried to secure the rights and technology associated with this Surrey company. Unfortunately the founder of that company passed away before we were able to get anything done. Anyways ....

You may be able to find zeolite at equestrian/tack shops. Some kitty litters use zeolite as a major components. Find this product and place a few pounds worth in a garbage bag. put the feathers and materials into this bag on top of the zeolite and tie up the bag. Let it sit for a few weeks or longer if required. The smoke smell should be drawn into the zeolite through ion adsorbsion.

Or you can place the materials in a gym bag or something like that and get it ozonated or ozone bombarded to clear the smoke smell. Canadian tire used to ozonate hockey gear for $20. Might make things brittle though.

[HOOK]

If all the materials are in plastic bags than it may just be the bags holding the smell. take some out and smell them, away from the other stuff and see if they smell smoky. Might be a simple task of re packaging it all in new plastic. In regards to tools, vice, hooks....etc then those will need to be cleaned



not sure why this didn't come to me earlier

[GENERAL-SHERMAN]

you could try the HE scent remover soap hunters use on clothes to remove scent.. I doubt it will pull the smell completely out of the feathers but you never know. it gets the smell of buck tarsal gland out of clothes I know that!

[SPEYMAN]

Wash what you can, put the rest in a sealed container with moth balls. You may find that the moth ball scent will replace the smoke smell. We use to store our feathers and furs with moth balls to keep the insects out. Test once in a while, no loss if it doesn't work.

[Flytech]

Take all the material out of the packages and leave them on a tray in the garage. The smell should disappear after some time, or at least be tolerable.

[bald_seagull]

Take all the material out of the packages and leave them on a tray in the garage. The smell should disappear after some time, or at least be tolerable.

x2 i bought some fly tying stuff on CL and it made my whole apartment smell like cigars and mothballs after about 2 weeks on the balcony the smell became tolerable now theres no smell at all

[RalphH]

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Smoke-Smell

washing or soaking materials in a borax solution would also be worth a shot. Borax has been used by taxidermists to preserve feathers and fur plus it is known for it's natural washing and deodorant properties. I'd try that on synthetics as well. I'd expect that synthetics would be less likely to absorb the oils and tar from cigarette smoke than naturals.

[Rieber]

Almost a month has gone by. What did you end up doing to rid the smoke smell?

[TheFishingLad]

Almost a month has gone by. What did you end up doing to rid the smoke smell?

currently I have everything sitting in a big tub of water and Sunlight soap. The plastic bags aren't doing well, still smell like smoke crap so they will have to be tossed, but the materials seem to be taking it well. I'm just trying to figure out the logistics of drying mass amounts of feathers while keeping separated. Paper towel and plates, I suspect.

[Rieber]

currently I have everything sitting in a big tub of water and Sunlight soap. The plastic bags aren't doing well, still smell like smoke crap so they will have to be tossed, but the materials seem to be taking it well. I'm just trying to figure out the logistics of drying mass amounts of feathers while keeping separated. Paper towel and plates, I suspect.

No problem. Throw everything into the clothes drier and it will all come out dry and magically separated. I think you'll need to orient feathers in the correct direction as well otherwise thinks get challenged when wrapping.

Pretty tricky to dry masses of materials. Press them in towels to get the bulk of the water out then dry on racks on the table? I don't know how you keep everything from flying around when it dries and someone walks by.

Do not put them in the drier or oven.

Try take out a small batch to experiment - if it even works before you spend all that time only to find out soaking didn't work.

Sorry man, good luck.