Down
Facts and Performance Sleeping Bags
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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Facts and Performance Sleeping Bags
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