Quill and ink well set.

[LehighBrad]

Banged this out in an afternoon....more or less just to see if I could. The next few sets will have much better scrimshaw on them.

[Topknot]

Leighigh, very , very nice! Are you planning to make any to sell?

                                                          topknot

[LehighBrad]

TopKnot....I'm considering making a few more for sale at the Fort Halifax festival this spring. That's Halifax, Pennsylvania, the home town I grew up in....NOT Nova Scotia. Fort Halifax was a French & Indian war fort built along the Susquehanna river in 1756. The actual site of the fort is on property that up until a few years ago, was owned by my uncle. It was his family's dairy farm back in the 1950's. Do a search for "discovering Fort Halifax" and check it out.
I'll be there May 4th....with my powder horns on display. Some will be for sale. It's a good time. Reenactors, suttlers, and good entertainment....all free!

[pathfinder]

That is a really nice set. I like the diverse craftsmanship and skills that show's up in all area's of our longrifle culture.

Now I wish I knew how to write!

Great job!

                                       Be Well

                                                  Ted

[LehighBrad]

Second ink well and quill set. Finished this afternoon. This one uses deer antler for the quill holder and knob on the ink well lid. Third set near completion....stay tuned!

[Hungry Horse]

The "quill and thoughts" is a little too hippy trippy for me. The craftsmanship is excellent.


                  Hungry horse

[Kermit]

Pirate movies and such have done their best to erase from memory what a proper quill pen should look like. The feather gets stripped to look something like this picture, not some gaudy ostrich plume.

http://janeaustensworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/quilhand.jpg

I've taken to removing all but a small "flag" on one side at the end of the feather to use for brushing off remnants of the drying sand. For smaller pens suitable for traveling, take it all off and shorten to your liking or to fit your traveling well set. Scroll through this to see examples of stripped quills.

http://www.goosebay-workshops.com/Writing

Here's a good piece on making useable quill pens. You need more than a well and a feather, unless your intentions are purely decorative.

http://www.flick.com/~liralen/quills/quills.html

[garydriver]

May be off topic a bit. Just saw the George Washington display at the St. Louis History Site and saw two films that was related to Quill pens and they show the quill upside down from what you normially see. Has anyone seen this done. It seemed to work very well in the film and was much clearer. Just a thought or not.

[LehighBrad]

The third and final quill and ink well set. I'm officially all ink-welled out! Onto the next powder horn!