Quill Pen Instructions

Make your own quill pen with a feather and a knife.

Scribes in medieval times used quill pens to make handwritten copies of manuscripts containing beautiful calligraphy. In addition, people continued using quill pens through the 1800s for homework, business records and correspondence. The pens were handmade using feathers from domesticated barnyard fowl, a basic knife and some hot sand. Quill pens can still be made at home today with the same basic tools in an afternoon. With practice, you can make your own writing implement and do some calligraphy of your own.

Things You'll Need

• Feather
• Metal bucket
• Sand
• Heat source
• Craft knife
• Cutting board

Instructions

1. Trim the barbs from one side of the feather. The barbs are the feathery extensions running on the two opposite sides of the feather to form the plume. This will be the underside, or bottom, of the quill pen. Cutting the barbs away from this side keeps the quill pen from scratching your hand when you write with it.

2. Heat the sand in the metal bucket until it reaches and maintains a level of 140 degrees F. The heat source can be a hot plate, open fire or charcoal grill.

3. Stick the quill end of the feather into the sand up to where the barbs begin. Leave in the sand for about five minutes so that the feather has time to come to the temperature of the sand. Remove the bucket from the heat source and allow the whole thing to cool, leaving the feather in the sand. This tempers the quill, making it stronger and more flexible.

4. Remove the feather from the sand, wipe it off and lay it on the cutting board top-side up. Remember that the top is the side opposite from where you removed all the barbs in Step 1.

5. Make a diagonal slice through the end of the top side, removing about 1/4 inch. The slice should create a slope from the top side to the bottom and remove the tip of the feather.

6. Insert the craft knife into the barrel of the quill with the blade pointed upward. Angle the knife upward so that a slit is cut exactly in the middle of the top of the barrel. The slit should be about 1/4 inch long.

7. Turn the feather over so that the top, slit side is against the cutting board. Cut an angled slice from the bottom side about 1/2 inch long. This cut should make the slit in the top side visible. Now the quill should begin to look like a pen because you have just created a rough nib.

8. Cut away both sides of the nib, tapering them toward the slit. There should be just tiny, equal fractions of quill left on each side of the slit.

9. Scrape the inside of the barrel to clean it, flatten the nib and make everything even.

10. Sharpen the quill pen as needed by repeating Steps 5 through 9.

Tips & Warnings

• Goose, swan or turkey feathers work well for quill pens.

• Do not make the slit too long because the nib will be too soft. Also, do not make it too short or the nib will be too hard. Experiment with different lengths of slits to find out which works best for the feather you have selected.

References

• New Hampshire Historical Society: The Quill Pen
• Medieval Writing: The Quill Pen