Quill Making and Trials
Last updated
Last updated
Writing on paper and parchment requires a writing instrument. Pens, made from reeds or quills, would be used and could be customized for its intended purpose (a few flicks of a knife would change the nib from fine point to broad edge). The two main tools of a scribe were thus the penknife (a multi-purpose tool meant for cutting pages, pricking for ruling, sharpening quills and erasing mistakes) and the quill pen for writing. In the following image, notice the grip and how the writing surface is not flat, but angled (at about 45°).
Our goal for this exercise, is to make a quill pen tand try to reproduce the pen strokes necessary to make the medieval bookhand. Our exercise has two stages: pen making and pen trials. It takes a bit of practice to do either, so don't get frustrated!
any kind of long bird feather - swan or goose feathers work best (if not able to get any, plastic straws can also work in a pinch).
very sharp knife/ cutting mat
electric iron/ bowl of heated sand (not obligatory)
Instead of working up a tutorial from scratch, I will point you to the excellent tutorial produced by Sara Charles (link below), on quill making. Also, bonus, pictures include cats. The linked instructions provide a very detailed step-by-step, but you can skip one or two steps:
given we might only be using the pens for a few trials, you might not need to heat-harden them
I'm not sure how important it is to remove the waxy coating on the exterior of the feather bottom
you might not need to remove the upper feather bits (medieval scribes made the quills smooth, so unlike in period pieces, there wouldn't be the feathery bits, but it might make too much of a mess to remove them)
Larry Thompson has made a video tutorial about quill making which you can watch here before class.
After you have made the quill, try writing with some iron gall ink on the parchment scraps in the Book Arts lab, if possible, using the writing models presented in David Harris' The Art of Calligraphy (posted on Perusall). Also see the next assignment.
