thumb|Quill and a parchment|321x321px
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/steel-nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen.
thumb|218x218px|Ink bottle and quill
As with the earlier reed pen (and later dip pen), 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 by modern calligraphers, however, it is still the tool of choice for a few scribes who claim that quills provide an unmatched sharp stroke as well as a greater assortment in writing modes, customisation, and line variability.
Description
alt=Picture of a quill nib.|thumb|218x218px|A nib cut from a bird's quill
thumb|Feathers in stages of being made into quills|218x218px
The shaft of a flight feather is long and hollow, making it an obvious option for being crafted into a pen. The process of making a quill from a feather involves curing the shaft, typically by drying in air or hot sand or ashes to harden it. Then fashioning the tip into a nib using a pen knife or other sharp cutting tool.
A quill pen is in effect a hollow tube which 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.
Sources
thumb|250px|Quill with stripped barbs and insets of tips
The strongest quills come from the primary flight feathers discarded by birds during their annual moult. Although some have claimed that feathers from the left wing are better suited to right-handed writers because the feather curves away from the sight line, over the back of the hand, Depending on availability and strength of the feather, as well as quality and characteristic of the line wanted by the writer, other bird feathers used for quill-pen making include but are not limited to those from the crow, eagle, owl, turkey, and hawk too. Crow feathers were particularly useful as quills when fine writing, such as accounting books, was required.
alt=Picture of a box of writing quills with barbs removed. Some have ink-stained tips from use.|center|thumb|Box of quills with barbs removed|428x428px
Uses
left|thumb|British calligrapher [[Edward Johnston writing with a quill pen]]
Quill pens were used to write the vast majority of medieval manuscripts. Quill pens were used to write Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence.
From the 17th to 19th centuries, the central tube of the quill was used as a priming tube (filled with gunpowder) for cannon fire.
History
250 px|thumb|left|Sharpening a quill
The quill pen evolved from the reed pen, of Egyptian origin. Quills were the primary writing instrument in the barbarian kingdoms from the 6th to the 19th century. The best quills were usually made from goose, swan, and later turkey feathers. Quills went into decline after the invention of the steel pen, mass production beginning in Great Britain as early as 1822 by John Mitchell of Birmingham.
thumb|250 px|right|La Lettera by [[Théodore Ralli|Théodore Jacques Ralli, c. 1887, woman writing letter with quill pen.]]
Quill pens were the instrument of choice during the medieval era due to their compatibility with parchment and vellum. Before this, the larger reed pen had been used, but a finer letter was achieved on animal skin using a cured quill. Other than written text, they were often used to create figures, decorations, and images on manuscripts, although many illuminators and painters preferred fine brushes for their work. The fine and flexible tip allowed for a variety of different strokes.
Quills are denominated from the order in which they are fixed in the wing; the first is favoured by the expert calligrapher, the second and third quills also being satisfactory, together with the pinion feather. The 5th and 6th feathers are also used. No other feather on the wing would be considered suitable by a professional scribe.
Information can be obtained on the techniques of curing and cutting quills:
An accurate account of the Victorian process by William Bishop, from research with one of the last London quill dressers, is recorded in the Calligrapher's Handbook cited on this page.
Quills are on the coats of arms of a number of municipalities such as Bargfeld-Stegen in Germany and La Canonja in Spain.
Three books and a quill pen are the symbols of Saint Hilary of Poitiers.
Quill and pen knives
A quill knife was the original primary tool used for cutting and sharpening quills, a process known as "dressing".
Following the decline of the quill in the 1820s, after the introduction of the maintenance-free, mass-produced steel dip nib by John Mitchell, knives were still manufactured but became known as desk knives, stationery knives or latterly as the name stuck "pen" knives.
There is a small but important difference between a pen knife and a quill knife, in that the quill knife has a blade that is flat on one side and convex on the other which facilitates the round cuts required to shape a quill.
A "pen" knife by contrast has two flat sides. This distinction is not recognised by modern traders, dealers or collectors, who define a quill knife as any small knife with a fixed or hinged blade, including such items as ornamental fruit knives.
Today
While quills are rarely used as writing instruments in the modern day, they are still being produced as specialty items, mostly for hobbyists. Such quills tend to have metal nibs or are sometimes even outfitted with a ballpoint pen inside to remove the need for a separate source of ink.
According to the Supreme Court Historical Society, 20 goose-quill pens, neatly crossed, are placed at the four counsel tables each day the U.S. Supreme Court is in session; This has been done since the earliest sessions of the Court.
In the Jewish tradition quill pens, called kulmus (), are used by scribes to write Torah Scrolls, Mezuzot, and Tefillin.
Music
Plectra for psalteries and lutes can be cut similarly to writing pens. The rachis, the portion of the stem between the barbs, not the calamus, of the primary flight feathers of birds of the Corvidae was preferred for harpsichords. In modern instruments, plastic is more common, but they are often still called "quills".