Via SuperElf: How to cut Quill Pens from Feathers

This is a page about how to cut feathers into useful quill pens. It attempts to go into most of the tradeoffs and possibilities that are possible with one of the most flexible writing instruments ever made. A practical guide to making feathers into something that writes.

I won’t say that if you follow The Instructions Here that you’ll get a working pen to your liking, half the battle is really knowing what you like. The other half is getting a feel for how your knife goes into the feathers of your choice and how the various things I’m going to talk about will affect what you really want to do. I will say up front that it’s probably going to take a number of tries, it won’t be perfect the first time, but with practice it can be really statisfying.