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PROCESSING

The long and complex process of plucking, washing, drying, dedusting, sorting and blending, has a huge effect on the final quality of the down. The down is wet-plucked by processors who rip the feathers off the bird in the initial food preparation stage. Dry-plucking is now uncommon but it's far gentler to the down. The plumage is then thoroughly washed to get rid of all the dirt. If this isn't done correctly it can ruin the delicate structure of the down. In Europe plumage is steam-dried immediately after wet plucking, whereas in China it is traditionally spread out to air-dry in the open - a method which calls for extra treatment later in the cleaning process.

Eiderdown is hand-gathered from the ducks' nests and contains many foreign substances, twigs, etc. The peculiar nature of the down makes it impossible to blow through a sorter, so these impurities have to be picked out by hand. A long and costly process (eiderdown twig plucker?).

Once clean the down is carefully dried and sorted. Sorting involves the plumage being blown down a chamber full of cubicles, with the heaviest material (feathers) falling into the first cubicle and the lightest (the down) landing in the further cubicles. Throughout these processes the down is dedusted to remove any undue particles.

The final process is blending the different specific mixtures of different downs or of down and feather (80/20, 60/40 etc). It is also a useful way of ensuring consistent quality throughout a batch of down by mixing it thoroughly after sorting and before bagging. To ensure consistency between winter and summer down from the same source some suppliers store down for months and blend it throughout the year.

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