The International STa"M Forum

The quill knives that are available nowadays for the most part are in fact Sloyd knives, or bench knives intended for woodworking and whittling that have been reground and presented as quill knives.   This selection of high quality knives is produced by Lee Valley.  Notice that model E is the exact same knife, albeit reshaped, as is sold by John Neal Books as a quill knife.  In its natural state it retails for about $18, reground $70. Here are two others that are made by Pinewood Forge.  With a moderate amount of grinding these make extraordinarily good knives for cutting quills.  This is the quill knife available from Kalligraphie.ch for 125 Euros plus international shipping, again looking suspiciously like a spear-point whittling knife available in the US for $25-30. What sets a quill knife apart from a carving knife is not the quality of the steel, or the shape of the handle, but the way the blade is reshaped.  Given this fact...

I'm of the opinion that the best feathers for making kulmusim come from the first five feathers on either wing of the wild Canada goose which have been naturally molted from a mature bird.  They're strong, have much longer barrels than turkey quills, need much less resharpening and one such quill, properly tempered, can last for months of full-time writing. These quills do however require a much lighter touch than say turkey quills. Next best, I think is the Toulouse goose.  These birds often reach 25 lbs or more and produce very large feathers.  Because they're raised in captivity their feathers seem to be not as strong as those of birds which fly.  Nonetheless, their quills are highly desirable and make fine, long wearing pens. The average white domestic goose has potential, but seldom is allowed to reach a size, or an age where it's quills are large, or hard enough. Most common of all for use as kulmulsim are the feathers of the turkey, mostly white d...