how to prepare feather quills?

[Brother Gabriel-Marie]

Greetings in Our Lord and Blessed Lady!

I am having some problem preparing feathers to make quill pens. I have read several accounts of how to do this. They say to heat a can of sand in the oven to about 400 degrees and then let your feather shaft sit in the sand till the sand cools. The shaft is supposed to turn opaque or white. But when I try it nothing happens! Can somebody help me?

Thanks
Brother Gabriel-Marie

[Kenneth Freed]

Brother Gabriel-Marie,
Try soaking the whole feather in boiling water until it is soft and then put it in the hot sand. This may help.
Best wishes,
Kenneth Freed

[Brother Gabriel-Marie]

Thanks! Merry Christmas!

Sorry I didn't thank you sooner, but I stumbled onto your reply quite by accident!

One thing I learned NOT to do: DO NOT try to heat your quill over an open flame! (I know this sounds funny) It will crackle and pop and fry, even if you hold it way up high over the burner! And if you try to bake it, it seems to work somewhat as long as the feather shaft doesn't touch the metal pan - in which case it will crackle and pop and burn.

Mr. Freed, I will let you know how my pens come out when I get time to try it. I have a good incoming source of fresh wild turkey feathers!

-Brother Gabriel-Marie

[Robert Garrett]

soak the feather in water over night, Heat the sand, stick the feather in the hot sand. REPEAT..

gently scrape the tip, and carve the tip soak in water again, and again dry it in the sand.

The whole key is in getting the split right, and getting it right the first time correcting it is a pain, and generally results in a pen that is quite unsatisfactory.

RG

[Lala]

everything about cutting the tempered quill is easy but slitting it is so difficult! Does someone use quills on a regular basis? Could they give me a tip on how to split them?

One method I read about online is squishing them till they crack: doesn't work for me.
Another is putting the knife tip down on the inside of the quill tube where you want your slit to end and pressing until a crack runs to the writing tip of the quill. That was the only one that worked for me, but the outcome is 1 good slit to 3 ruined ones...

Could someone share a method that works for them? Also the type of knife that's best for this.
Thanks!

[Robert Garrett]

I use an exacto knife, and the crack method, it takes practice but gets easier.. The best knife is a old pen knife.. you can find them sometimes at antique stores and the like.. but they have to be very sharp.

RG

[John Kennedy]

Lala, To keep the end from splitting to far up the feather after yuo cut it, try drilling a small hole about 3/4 to 1 inch up from the end of the tip, then cut from the hole down to the end several times and then split the end using a small piece of wood, tapping lightly on the end only. Good Luck!

Blessings, John

[Lala]

Thank you! yes I use an exacto too. My problem is the gap that often forms between the legs of the pen. The other extreme is the slit not opening at all. John, what do you tap with the piece of wood, the handle of the knife?

Take a look at these images (print by Ciamberlano after Agostino Caracci circa 1597-1629)

http://www.britishmuseum.org/collect...3726_001_l.jpg

In the second picture it looks like he is making a slit (does it?)

Any ideas what he is doing in the third? cracking the slit open? when I do that i get a gap that doesn't go away...

Here's another one
http://www.britishmuseum.org/collect...3727_001_l.jpg
the shape of the knife is curious, like a sicle

Could you tell me also where you get suitable quills? I got mine from a woman named Linda Anfuso a long time ago, but they're turkey quills.

And here are more cool quill-cutting images
http://www.britishmuseum.org/collect...0418_001_l.jpg Lucas von Leyden "St Matthew"

http://www.britishmuseum.org/collect...5182_001_l.jpg Enequist after van Ostade

http://www.britishmuseum.org/collect...7678_001_l.jpg Verkolje

[ 15. February 2011, 10:33: Message edited by: Lala ]

[J.A. Borgesse]

Lala,
The knife in the Ciamberlano illustration was known as a quill knife (not to be confused with a pen knife which had a diffeent shape) To my knowledge, the curved side of the quill knife blade was designed to make the rounded cuts required for the quill tip while the straighter side was, as you can see in the illustration, designed to make an initial small slit with the tip of the blade, then further split by using the bottom part of the blade near the handle, which would allow more stablity for this final but delicate procedure. I am not sure whether the final slit was done by gently pushing the blade into the quill tip or by gently pushing the quill tip into the blade. Cracking the slit open is possible but pushing or rather slicing into the initial small slit seems more likely. This might be a significant detail. It seems too, that the illustration is taking pains to show how to hold the knife and quill. This may also be a help.
JAB
WEBSITE:
http://www.jaborgesse.com/

[ 15. February 2011, 11:59: Message edited by: J.A. Borgesse ]

[J.A. Borgesse]

Lala,
Here is one source for goose, turkey, and other types of quills. They offer packets and bulk orders.

http://www.jaffefeathers.co.uk/bulk-...rs_1_109_1.htm

JAB
WEBSITE:
http://www.jaborgesse.com/

[ 15. February 2011, 14:04: Message edited by: J.A. Borgesse ]