Quill Pens

[wspohn]

I doubt many, if any play about with quill pens - that is, making a pen from a bird feather using a pen knife, but I thought this might be interesting for the completists here.

 

Goose feathers were the favoured choice for making writing instruments due to size, and one would take a feather, tri the end off at an angle, and slit it up the middle for a short length so it would hold ink and feed it out as you wrote (anyone know how many words you could get per dip?.

 

Feathers are not symmetrical - they curve and they do so in opposite directions depending on which wing they were taken from. Right wing feathers would point off to the right when held by a writer and the end of the feather would be off to the right of his right eye. Left had feathers curved the opposite way and a right hand writer would find them curving in front near their eye rather than over his elbow. Accordingly, if you were having to husband limited resources, you bought the left hand feathers, which were slightly cheaper. There were few left handed people given that it was viewed as sinister and devilish.

 

Question - how many people own a pen knife today? A pocket knife normally has two blades at one end, while a pen knife has two blades hinged at opposite ends of the knife and the smaller one is used for splitting and configuring quills.

 

See https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/75961-the-quill-pen/ for techniques.

[corniche]

Hi Wspohn,

 

I'd have to bastardize the process: use a Swiss Army knife on a wild turkey feather.

 

I have lots of turkeys roaming through my property, but no geese. And I dont own a two-blade pen knife; my dad did - but my brother inherited it - the family will not willingly let me have sharp or pointy objects.

 

 

- Sean

[BaronWulfraed]

I'd think the position of the blade hinge is less of a determinant than the shape of the blade. Mostly a straight cutting edge only curving up (and down) near the tip.

 

https://www.knifebuzz.com/knife-blade-shapes/

 

The pen knife blade features a symmetrical curve on both sides of a center spine, similar to a spear point blade. However, unlike a spear point, it’s only sharpened on one side. It may also feature a more gradual curve. It is used for small folding pocketknives. The main benefit of a pen knife is its small size. A Swiss Army knife is the most popular example of a pen knife.

 

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/complete-guide-pocket-knives/ (illustrated with two blades at the same end)

 

While we no longer have to sharpen quills, many multiple-blade pocket knives still include a pen blade in the mix. It’s a small blade, and not very sharp, but comes in handy for tasks that require delicate work.

[Estycollector]

https://lovingspens.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/the-pen-used-to-write-and-the-pen-used-to-sign/

[inkstainedruth]

I don't have a pen knife but I do have a couple of small Leatherman multi-tools. And I do know a guy in the SCA (I think he's in Western NYS somewhere) who has taught quill cutting classes; one of these days I should take one of his classes, even though I'm not a scribe (most movies -- even the 2018 film Outlaw King -- which I just watched yesterday) get that wrong -- quills for writing have most of the poofy feather part cut off, into a triangular shape, which was then used to brush off the pounce or sand used to hep dry the ink.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[sidthecat]

There are pen knives, which are skinny and straight, and ink knives, which are short and curved - they're for scraping ink off your paper if you need to make corrections. They're sometimes sold together.

[ParramattaPaul]

I remember my grandfather using his pen knife in the 1950s. Apparently, it had alternative uses besides cutting quills. He used it to scrape the inside of the bowl of his pipe.

[wspohn]

Small knives have all sorts of uses. I carry a small Laguiole knife and keep it sharp - I don't use it for cleaning pipe bowls as I collect smoking antiques and have dedicated bowl reamers, cigar cutters, pipe tampers etc. but the small knife comes in handy all the time.

[bemon]

Hi Wspohn,

 

I'd have to bastardize the process: use a Swiss Army knife on a wild turkey feather.

 

I have lots of turkeys roaming through my property, but no geese. And I dont own a two-blade pen knife; my dad did - but my brother inherited it - the family will not willingly let me have sharp or pointy objects.

 

 

- Sean

My parents also have an abundance of wild turkeys around their parts. Those are some mean birds. I know it's not relevant to this thread, but I've had my share of surprise encounters and I definitely prefer them on a platter rather than stalking me from the woods. Anyway. Back to regularly scheduled programming.

[corniche]

*** BRIEF DIGRESSION FROM REGULARLY SCHEDULED TOPIC ***

 

Hi Bemon, et al,

 

I HAVE HEARD THAT from neighbors, but fortunately I've never had any run-ins with them.

 

But they have been known to attempt attacks; here they are now marching on my back door in single formation with reserves standing by a little ways up the hill.

 

(My property runs up to where you see the van - that's my neighbors drive... and that's my closest neighbor - so I'm used to the wildlife - but so far, I've only had aggressive run-ins with foxes, raccoons and coyotes).

 

 

 

- Sean

 

 

*** BACK TO REGULARLY SCHEDULED TOPIC ***

[bemon]

*** BRIEF DIGRESSION FROM REGULARLY SCHEDULED TOPIC ***

 

Hi Bemon, et al,

 

I HAVE HEARD THAT from neighbors, but fortunately I've never had any run-ins with them.

 

But they have been known to attempt attacks; here they are now marching on my back door in single formation with reserves standing by a little ways up the hill.

 

(My property runs up to where you see the van - that's my neighbors drive... and that's my closest neighbor - so I'm used to the wildlife - but so far, I've only had aggressive run-ins with foxes, raccoons and coyotes).

 

 

 

- Sean

 

 

*** BACK TO REGULARLY SCHEDULED TOPIC ***

DON'T GO OUTSIDE! It's not worth the quill pen project.

[corniche]

DON'T GO OUTSIDE! It's not worth the quill pen project.

 

Mmmm...mmmm... NOT me, brother! That's why I'm hiding behind the drape.

 

 

- Sean

[Honeybadgers]

I use a dogtooth blade slipjoint spyderco kiwi all the time, it's always in my uniform breast pocket - super useful for cutting up an apple or cheese when I'm on duty and don't want to get out my massive spyderco manix for small work, and the straight dogtooth blade (no curve at all) makes it such a snap to sharpen. It's tiny but the 1.5 inch blade is suuuuper useful.

 

As I understood it, didn't proper quill pens need to be heated in sand to stiffen them up and make them easier to trim and shape properly?

 

I thought a pen knife was just a word for a small knife. Quill pens were well out of service before the common penknife as we know it became commonplace.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Honeybadgers

[BaronWulfraed]

 

Mmmm...mmmm... NOT me, brother! That's why I'm hiding behind the drape.

 

 

- Sean

At my previous residence, I could have opened the basement window and nabbed a turkey with a muffled Benjamin Marauder airgun -- biggest problem would be adjusting the point of aim as the scope is some 2 inches above the bore, and the bird would only be about two feet from the muzzle.

[corniche]

At my previous residence, I could have opened the basement window and nabbed a turkey with a muffled Benjamin Marauder airgun -- biggest problem would be adjusting the point of aim as the scope is some 2 inches above the bore, and the bird would only be about two feet from the muzzle.

Hi Baron,

 

I've given serious consideration to clipping one with my Ruger 1022 rifle because game birds typically do taste a lot better than anything you find in the store, but ALL that plucking and butchering is too much work for me these days - besides, I prefer ham.

 

 

- Sean

[Estycollector]

 

Mmmm...mmmm... NOT me, brother! That's why I'm hiding behind the drape.

 

 

- Sean

While they can be aggressive, a vintage Stevens 410 usually will suffice.....lol!

[corniche]

While they can be aggressive, a vintage Stevens 410 usually will suffice.....lol!

 

You're right! A shotgun would be better. I hope a 4 y.o. Mossberg .410 will suffice; I haven't got a vintage Stevens.

 

 

- Sean

[AAAndrew]

I've read that the first 10.000 quills you cut are the hardest, and then they start to get easier. I still have about 9,970 to go, so I'm a long way from an expert. I use both an Xacto knife, as well as a chip-carving tool.

 

 

You do need to get the quill just the right amount of hardness. They used to just age the quill a couple of years. Later, I believe in the 18th-century, they came up with a technique called Dutching the quill where they soak it in water and alum, and then heat it in hot sand. This starts it out at a consistent level of hardness (or lack thereof) and then hardens it with even heat.

 

BTW, heating sand inside will often result in an unpleasant smell. I heat my sand on my outside gas grill.

 

Goose quills, specifically the outside five flight feathers on each wing, are considered the best. They did use turkey, and swan feathers, though these are harder and larger, and so generally stiffer. Even in steel pen times, you will fine large steel pens labeled as Swan's Quill. (and very small and fine pens as Crow's Quill)

 

It is quite a challenge to get a pen just right. Even back in the day when everyone wrote with a quill, very few people were skilled at making or mending a pen. Quills would soften quite quickly. An industrious clerk could go through a dozen quills in a day. They were often then bundled up, and sold back to the stationer who would have specialists re-cut the quills and sell them as seconds, often back to the very businesses who sold the worn-out quill back in the first place.

 

I am finding that Canada Goose quills are working out quite good. Traditionally, most goose quills came from domestic geese with Russia and Holland providing the most (millions of quills a year). Each goose could provide five quills from each wing twice a year. That's still a lot of geese. And when the steel pen started to replace quills in the 1830's, a lot of geese were "fired" and probably made into dinner.

 

Try it out. It's one of those things that is not complicated to do poorly, but quite difficult to get right.

 

 

[Estycollector]

Nice post Andrew.

[corniche]

Nice post Andrew.

+1

 

 

- Sean