Quill
A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal-nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen.
As with earlier reed pens (and later dip pens), a quill has no internal ink reservoir and therefore needs to periodically be dipped into an inkwell during writing. The hand-cut goose quill is rarely used as a calligraphy tool anymore because many papers are now derived from wood pulp and would quickly wear a quill down. However, it is still the tool of choice for a few scribes who have noted that quills provide an unmatched sharp stroke as well as greater flexibility than a steel pen.
Description
The shaft of a flight feather is long and hollow, making it an obvious candidate for being crafted into a pen. The process of making a quill from a feather involves curing the shaft to harden it, then fashioning its tip into a nib using a penknife or other small cutting tool.
A quill pen is in effect a hollow tube that has one closed-end, and has one open end at which part of the tube wall extends into a sharp point and has in it a thin slit leading to this point.
The hollow shaft of the feather (the calamus) acts as an ink reservoir and ink flows to the tip through the slit by capillary action.
In a carefully prepared quill, the slit does not widen through wetting with ink and drying. It will retain its shape adequately, requiring only infrequent sharpening; it can be used repeatedly until there is little left of it.
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Quill ]
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