I have an older bag that needs some refreshing and lightening up. Currently it has 12 oz. 650 fill down and I have 4oz. of 800 fill down. I was wondering if some of the 650 down could be reclaimed and 'sorted' so as to take the best of the 650 down and combine it with the 40z of 800 fill down to restuff the bag. I would like to fill the bag with 10 oz. of high quality down ultimately.

Is 650 down a combination of high quality down and low quality down with an average fill power of 650ci? Or is it simply a lower quality down? Will there be some percentage of high quality 800+ fill down in there? How much down could I expect to recover.

If there is, any ideas on how to separate the best down from the lower quality down?

I have sorted down before, from some coats that died. You end up with lighter down, no feathers, which, I think should be higher quality down. No easy way around it, I just would take a lump of down, the right size, put it on rimmed baking sheet, start pulling the pile apart, remove the feathers. A needle nose pliers makes pulling and throwing the feathers away easier. Move pile until sorted, put sorted pile into paper bag, continue until done. Use paper bag, not plastic, the down won't stick to paper bag, and you can carefully close the bag.

Don't pull too much apart. Supposedly the bigger the clump, the higher the grade of down. I would pull out feathers and stop there.

I'd strongly suggest wearing a cheap paper mask (think dentist/surgeon) over your face while doing this for two reasons. One, to keep from inhaling down fluff, in the mouth is annoying, in the nose will lead to some pretty epic sneezing fits. Two, just to shield your breath from the pile of down, these little feathers take flight at the slightest air current, blocking your breath helps immensely.

Lefty,

In the down I sorted, the clumps always had a feather in the center, just had to get it out, clump remained in the new pile. Think the clump started as a feather, then the down got tangled in it. Was worthwhile project, but time consuming to do it right. Also, do not do near heat/ac vents, when the unit kicks on, you could have a mess, as it truly takes nothing to get the down flying. Don't move too fast away from the tray either. Have vacuum handy.

Edited by troop208 on 03/23/2011 06:56:07 MDT.