0:00
So I recently found some old shuttles which were sat in my old badminton bag in Malaysia
0:04
and some of them are looking pretty dry and brittle. So I'm going to show you a few steps to revive and extend their life
0:10
instead of throwing them away or have them die on you very quickly when you play with them
0:15
You might know this technique as shuttle steaming. Step 1. Get to know your old shuttles
0:21
They're normally yellow and are pretty brittle from the age and dryness
0:25
Thresholds are normally white and the feathers are quite supple. Sometimes you will also see discolorations on the cork leather or even the feathers
0:33
They might look like mould, but I don't think they are. For our sauna session today, I'm going to have some old RSL and Chao Pai shuttles
0:40
which I've had since 2016. So they've aged a fair bit and you can see it's gone yellow
0:45
And sometimes shuttles, which have been kept for quite a while, also tend to stick together
0:50
Step two, boil some hot water. Simple. Step three, pour your hot water into a cup or a mug
0:56
or if you have a teapot with a spout, it will work too. Anything where you can channel the hot steam
1:01
in a very specific direction will work very well. Step four, remove one of the shuttle tube caps
1:07
and place the shuttle tube above your hot cup of water or spout
1:11
I prefer having the cork pointing upwards so the first shuttle cork leather isn soaked Some prefer to have both caps of the shuttle tubes off but I prefer to have one on just to capture all that steam Step 5 As some of the shuttle tubes are unlined so be careful about oversteaming the shuttles
1:26
for too long. If you remove the top shuttle tube cap and you spot steam coming out, that should be
1:32
good enough. Alternatively, I tend to go for about just a minute or so of steaming per tube and I've
1:37
found that to be enough. Make sure you replace both caps from the shuttle tube so no damp air escapes easily from the
1:43
tube that you've just steamed. Step 6. Leave the steam shuttle tubes for at least two days or more
1:49
before using them to allow the damp humid air time to rehydrate the feathers. And now that you've
1:55
steamed or rehydrated some of your dried old feather shuttle hocks, from experience they generally
2:00
will last much longer than a brittle dry old shuttle, but will tend to be slightly slower
2:06
than the original rated speed. They won't be perfect like a brand new freshly made shuttle
2:11
but this technique will allow you to enjoy your old shuttles for a little bit longer
2:15
Alternatively, if you want to store your fresh shuttles well, keep them in a damp environment
2:20
Some people keep the shuttles in the shower room and that sounds like a good place
2:24
Just make sure you don't get the shuttle tube entirely wet. Let me know how you guys treat your old dried shuttles down in the comment section below
2:31
Good luck and I will see you in the next one
