In my experience "feather sticks" are only used to get a fire going. Even then if you have good conditions and good wood you won't need them. Where I've seen "feather sticks" really shine is when you've got crappy wood and poor conditions for a fire. The idea behind a "feather sticks" is that to make fire you need 3 things fuel, heat, and oxygen. What a "feather stick" does for you is increases the rate that oxygen can combine with the fuel by a factor of many percent. Every feather doubles the surface area, so on a "feather stick" you will have many times the surface area. The stick part of the "feather sticks" holds the feathers apart so that oxygen can get to them. So when you've got bad wood and bad conditions your fire initially won't generate enough heat to combust the less than ideal material. A "feather sticks" allows the heat to build up quicker so you can burn the rest of your less than ideal fuel. The really important part of making "feather sticks" is to get feathers. In my experience, It doesn't matter if they are pretty and nicely curled. The important part is to increase the surface area of the wood .... that will get your fire going.