Talk:Quill

message: There is no citation as to how a quill looked in the past. Therefore, it is opinion only.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.174.128.107 (talk) 06:25, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Feather 

message: I actually own a quill, made from a goose feather. I could take a picture of it and post it, since the current picture isn't of an authentic one.
--Skydude176 (talk) 22:10, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Quill Picture 

message: This article and the one on Pens both cite an 1810 date for the invention of metal nibs; but that seems only to be the date of the first American patent.  Historical references suggest early versions of metal pens were around in the 17th century, and metal nibs were certainly in use in England by the late 18th - does anyone have authoritative info on their development?RLamb (talk) 17:52, 12 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Metal pens

message: This article needs at least a link to instructions on how to make (trim) a quill.  Would be better if these instructions were included in this article.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.96.62.104 (talk) 18:52, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  How to make a quill pen 

message: It seems to me the person missed the point. It's not whether left or right quills were marketed to left or right hand writers, it's that a left quill was supposedly more inconvenient for a RIGHT HAND writer, which was all writers, as he points out. Also, if the difference is an "urban legend" as another suggested, I'd like to see more proof. .45Colt 23:13, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Left vs right quills 

message: This article needs tips from different angles, and close up, and maybe even how the cuts are made. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 13:33, 23 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tips tips tips and more tips 

message: In the Uses section the page mentions that quills were used to write the vast majority of medieval manuscripts
including the Magna Carta and Declaraion of Independence, but those aren't considered medieval manuscripts are they? (Ericfood (talk) 05:18, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wording in Uses Section 

message: I haven't seen anything else about wood-based papers wearing quills out any faster than historical paper. Does anyone know where this comes from? Intellectualrunoff (talk) 09:34, 5 August 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is Wood Paper Really a Problem? 

message: what 3 regions would the quill pen be more useful for them and why. 2600:6C52:763F:D4D5:DC1B:EB60:AEA4:A1E3 (talk) 18:09, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  quill pen 

message: In A Century in Print London: Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd (1939) by Keefe, H. J., on pg. 165 Keefe writes (and I have pasted it here because I cannot find an electronic version of this book),
: "The writer of this history sought out one of the last makers of quill pens left, Mr. R. Doran,[1] of Murray Grove, Shoreditch.
:: [1] Mr. Doran gave the author much interesting information about the almost extinct craft of quill-pen making. Hazell's have allowed this to be recorded here before it vanishes from living memory. Swan, goose, turkey, duck, and crow quills arc used. Goose quills were formerly most in demand. They came from St. Petersburg and Riga, graded by the exporters. Grading is called lothing, pronounced loting (German Loth, half-ounce). A loth is a measure of weight of a bundle containing a given number of quills. A quill in a bundle weighing 24 loths is called a 24-loth pen. Quills of five to eight loths are used for toothpicks and as holders for artists' brushes. Quills from nine loths upwards are suitable for pens; goose quills go up to eighteen loths, but swans, which start at twelve loths, go up to twenty-six.
:: Queen Victoria used a swan quill pen of twenty-five loths, and Mr. Doran had frequently to make pens ordered to be "the same as the Queen's." Swan-quill pens were usually left "full feather." Those from other birds had the feather stripped from the broad side, the narrow side being left untouched. Full-feather pens were used by Irving in his stage productions, and are still chosen for films and plays because they are more showy. King Edward VII used a Hudson Bay pen, that is, one from the wings of a North American wild goose, which is nearly as black as a crow.
:: The first process in making a pen requires a dutching tool, a large iron implement which one would expect to see in a forge. The quill is placed on a heated steel plate, and the dutching tool, also heated, is worked up and down it to clarify it. The quill, after being again heated, hardens when cool. Dirt is removed by rubbing with a piece of fish skin, and the quill is then ready for cutting with a special knife.
:: Were it not for Lloyd's, who occasionally order a thousand pens at a time from Mr. Doran's employer, and a small demand among artists who use quills for texting, this old craftsman, who belongs to the days when quill-pen making required a seven years' apprenticeship, would have almost entirely ceased his activities."
Christopher Rath (talk) 01:02, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: A copy is now available here: https://archive.org/details/a-century-in-print-the-story-of-hazells-1839-1939-h.-j.-keefe-1939 Christopher Rath (talk) 16:01, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Source material for consideration