Treating shuttles for durability

**Monster** · 06-22-2009, 12:56 AM

I have been told by a friend who's now playing in Europe that the guys in his club treats the shuttles prior to using. Basically, a new tube of shuttles are all dipped into water (just the feathers) but not soak. And they are inserted back into the tube and left for about 24 hrs. Then they are taken out to dry (but not under the sun, just leave them to dry in the room) before using.

Apparently, this makes the shuttle more durable. Is this true ?

**Gemcat** · 06-22-2009, 01:31 AM

I don't know about this. But if you have a thermal bottle and have some hot water in there, you can open both end of a shuttle tube and place the "Insert" end on top of the bottle, and let the steam from the thermal bottle go through the tube for around 3-5 minutes.

**taneepak** · 06-22-2009, 01:55 AM

No, this is just a bandaid to improve but not cure shuttlecocks that have lost their natural oils in the feathers after having been stored for too long.
This is a common problem with shuttlecocks imported by regional distributors. Because of the large quantities ordered, to save freight costs, and the drier weather in these countries, the quality suffers. Hence the need to use steaming or wetting. But water is not a substitute for the lost natural oils.
Shuttlecocks should be stored no longer than a year in warehouses that must be relatively humid. This is a problem with most northern hemisphere warehouses.
The only 100% assurance of consistent quality is to get shuttles fresh from the plants on special order, not from their inventory. I found this out the expensive way sometime back.

**Jing09** · 06-22-2009, 02:20 AM

oh man... I have these shuttlecocks... and they seem pretty old... because the feathers and cork turned brown a bit.

**krisss** · 06-22-2009, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by Monster

I have been told by a friend who's now playing in Europe that the guys in his club treats the shuttles prior to using. Basically, a new tube of shuttles are all dipped into water (just the feathers) but not soak. And they are inserted back into the tube and left for about 24 hrs. Then they are taken out to dry (but not under the sun, just leave them to dry in the room) before using.

Apparently, this makes the shuttle more durable. Is this true ?

Well it can make it slightly more durable , many people do this to their shuttles , but their are a lot of different methods!

On the whole , as long as you don't overdo the watering/steaming - the shuttles should be slightly more durable.

**sihker** · 06-22-2009, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Jing09

oh man... I have these shuttlecocks... and they seem pretty old... because the feathers and cork turned brown a bit.

Well, you could have lower grade shuttles. Quite some time ago, they started to use unbleached feathers for certain grade shuttles.

**taneepak** · 06-22-2009, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by sihker

Well, you could have lower grade shuttles. Quite some time ago, they started to use unbleached feathers for certain grade shuttles.

Are you referring to shuttlecocks that are either yellowish in colour or even black feathers? Actually they have been bleached but they look "unbleached" because that is the natural colour that cannot be bleached away. Unbleahed shutttles spread disease and is illegal.

**Monster** · 06-24-2009, 05:46 AM

Originally Posted by krisss

Well it can make it slightly more durable , many people do this to their shuttles , but their are a lot of different methods!

On the whole , as long as you don't overdo the watering/steaming - the shuttles should be slightly more durable.

What are methods are there? I'm going to try out soon with the water treating method.