Editing Quill (section)

==Sources==
[[File:Quill pen tip.jpg|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 [[Moulting|moult]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.museum.ie/The-Collections/Documentation-Discoveries/December-2015/Writing-Implements,-c18th-Century|title=Writing Implements, c18th Century| publisher=[[National Museum of Ireland]]}}</ref> 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,<ref name="A Note on the Quill">{{Cite web|url=https://www.usask.ca/english/barbauld/notes/quill_note.html|title=A Note on the Quill|website=www.usask.ca|access-date=2019-05-28}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> the quill barrel is cut to six or seven inches in length so no such consideration of curvature or 'sight-line' is necessary. Additionally, writing with the left hand in the era in which the quill was popular was discouraged, and quills were never sold as left- and right-handed, only by their size and species.

[[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]], [[Turkey (bird)|turkey]], and [[hawk]] too.<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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328110012/https://books.google.com/books?id=yTwkoOOSvBoC|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 28, 2017|date=31 July 2012|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=978-0-465-02878-8|page=237}}</ref>
[[File:Pens, quill (AM 1964.64-3).jpg|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]]