Quill: Difference between revisions

[[Goose]] feathers are most commonly used; scarcer, more expensive [[swan]] feathers are used for larger lettering.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/goose-quill-pen/|title=goose quill pen {{!}} Jane Austen's World|language=en|access-date=2019-05-28}}</ref> Depending on availability and strength of the feather, as well as quality and characteristic of the line wanted by the writer, other feathers used for quill-pen making include those from the [[crow (bird)|crow]], [[eagle]], [[owl]], [[hawk]], and [[Turkey (bird)|turkey]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/science/quill-feather|title=Quill {{!}} feather|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2019-05-28}}</ref> Crow feathers were particularly useful as quills when fine work, such as accounting books, was required.<ref name=":2" /> Each bird could supply only about 10 to 12 good-quality quills.<ref name=":0" />

 

On a true quill, the [[barb (feather)|barbs]] are stripped off completely on the trailing edge. (The pinion for example only has significant barbs on one side of the barrel.) Later, a fashion developed for stripping partially and leaving a decorative top of a few barbs. The fancy, fully plumed quill is mostly a Hollywood invention and has little basis in reality. Most, if not all, manuscript illustrations of scribes show a quill devoid of decorative barbs, or at least mostly stripped.<ref name="Hanson2012">{{cite book|author=Thor Hanson|title=Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTwkoOOSvBoC|date=31 July 2012|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=978-0-465-02878-8|page=237}}</ref>

 

==Uses==