Feathers
Feathers are used to fill featherbeds, as well as pillows. Feathers are also blended with down to make firmer pillows. The feathers in cheap featherbeds & feather pillows tend to be either large flight feathers that have been chopped up, or small flight feathers. Better quality products use body feathers, which have a natural bend or curl, and therefore have a lot more spring and fill power.
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Large Flight Feather |
Large Flight Feather cut into small pieces |
The result is a mix of small bits of feathers, fibres and other feather debris. |
Chopped Feather
The lowest quality feather product is made by chopped up large flight feathers. The resulting material consists of very flat feather bits. A pillow or featherbed filled with this material might start out feeling puffy because the pieces are blown in at random and will sit in a jumble. However, the pieces of feather will soon shift around with use and lie flat on top of each other, resulting in a flat, lifeless product.
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A small flight feather, rotated to show its flatness |
Small Flight Feathers
Another low quality feather product is produced by sorting out small flight feathers, which are very flat. Again, a pillow or featherbed filled with this material might start out feeling puffy because the feathers will sit in a jumble. However, they will also soon shift around with use and lie flat on top of each other, resulting in a flat, lifeless product.
Body Feathers
These feathers are about 1" to 2" long, and are grown by the bird to protect the body and the underlying down. Body feathers have a definite curve in the quill. This curve imparts a certain amount of spring, which makes these feathers very suitable for featherbeds, feather pillows, and feather & down blends.
Flight Vs. Body Feathers
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5g. of Chopped feathers. |
5g. of Flight feathers. |
5g. of Body feathers. |
There is a dramatic difference in the filling power and support between flight feathers and body feathers. There is also a noticeable difference in the price, as the body feather is obviously considerably more desirable.
For Quality Sleep
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Featherbeds filled with high quality body feathers will stay lofty and comfortable for years |
High quality body feathers will make an enormous difference to the quality, comfort, and longevity of pillows and featherbeds. A good quality featherbed is very bulky, as well as much more costly. Poor quality featherbeds and pillows filled with flight feathers are relatively inexpensive. Any feather filled product will need to be shaken and fluffed up occasionally. Body feathers respond to this very well, and flight feathers in any form will not fluff up due to their flatness.
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