[Scriptoris] Quills and problems....

[Hillary Greenslade]

Thanks Elaine, good review and tips.  
The best article I've found is the chapter written by Donald Jackson in the book 'The Calligrapher's Handbook', you guys can get it at John Neal Books.  The book is loaded with articles on gold leaf, calligraphy, inks, pigments - it's a collection of articles from the British scribes guild newsletters.  A must have for one's library.  
 
One problem with collecting feathers moulted from the ground, you can't tell easily if it's one of the 5 strong flight feathers, but you can test it for strength and look to see if the barrel is the size required.  I want to make a dutching tool by Gulf Wars so we can try it out, not something one can buy of the shelf these days.  
 
Cheers, Hillary

From: Elaine <eshc at earthlink.net>
To: Hillary Greenslade <hillaryrg at yahoo.com>; "Scribes within Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <scriptoris at lists.ansteorra.org> 
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 5:57 AM
Subject: Quills and problems....

From what I understand, parasites can also be frozen for a term in a baggie in the freezer.

Another point is that the best feathers of a bird (different birds for different sized lettering, as in crow quills for small lettering, swans for the big stuff) are the first 5 flight feathers, the big ones. Think of seeing a hawk in flight and the feathers that look like fingers at the end of the wings.

The shape of the way the curve that wraps around the bird's body is also important for the way the quill lays comfortably across the hand between the thumb and forefinger. Left bird wing feathers for a right handed scribe; right bird wing feathers for a left-handed scribe. Using the correct wing for the scribe's hand means the scribe doesn't have to "fight" the quill's wanting to malevolently rotate while you are concentrating on lettering.

Cut the quill's nib and then, about 8 inches from that point, chop off the de-barbed quill. Look at all the woodcut pictures of scribes working. There are no barbs on the quill at all. That business of long, barbed quills is sheer Hollywood, and we of the SCA know how really accurate all the Period movies portray the life and times of that era, right? I found Hollywood quills tickle my nose and get in the way when the lettering is being done just in front of my face, the place the surface is supposed to be.

You might also want to look up "dutching" the quill, as described in articles by the national, mundane calligrapher George Yanagita. Makes for nicer nibs  and , for me, better lettering, from those nibs I have used which were "dutched."

Best of all efforts to you.....

YIS,
Lete


On Jan 12, 2012, at 5:55 PM, Hillary Greenslade wrote:

> Hi all,
> In reference to Biau-douz's comments about goose feathers,
> if you do collect some moulted feathers, it's best if they fell off the wing naturally, rather than feathers still connected to the wing's, as in during hunting season - I've read feathers are very difficult to remove when still attached, without damaging the barrel of the feather, the part we want for calligraphy use.  So, best to collect those found by the lakes and zoo's, as they drop - you want good size barrel widths, as from flight feathers, not tiny feathers.
> 
> If you do collect natural feathers, you want to remove parasites:
> - wash in hot water
> - put in a sealed plastic bag in a warm room (attic, hot car) for several days or weeks to suffocate bugs.
> - put in a sealed plastic bag with several cotton balls wet with acetate (fingernail polish remover) to suffocate bugs.
> 
> Don't worry about damage done to feather barbs, they are usually removed from quills anyway, we don't care about 'pretty', rather function.
> 
> Cheers, Hillary
>