For your watching enjoyment:
Vintage writing videos
- Thread starter Doc4
- Start date
The one on quill making:
Was shown how to make a sort of quill pen out of turkey feathers, and it was interesting to compare the two. Keeping in mind that this was maybe to give a kid something to do and they were from the age of steel nib pens, there were three big differences:
1. No tempering. Since the feathers were picked up off the ground on the farm, that may not have been necessary or maybe it was an older tradition from prior to sand tempering (or again, something more on the order of a toy).
2, They only make one sloping cut and the two shoulder cuts. They did trim the end, but they didn't mention a chisile point. Either they made it while trimming or maybe didn't make it at all.
3. Didn't trim the fletching. As is pointed out in the video, contemporary paintings and drawings show the fletching all or partially removed. Again, this may have been due to the toy aspect.
In a related note, have come across straightened turkey feather quills, circa 19th Century. These seem to have been used as handles for a socketed nib, and were not cut at all.
Note the desk in the video. Have seen that called a Captain's Desk. They fold up in a box with all your writing materials. Very cool.
Was shown how to make a sort of quill pen out of turkey feathers, and it was interesting to compare the two. Keeping in mind that this was maybe to give a kid something to do and they were from the age of steel nib pens, there were three big differences:
1. No tempering. Since the feathers were picked up off the ground on the farm, that may not have been necessary or maybe it was an older tradition from prior to sand tempering (or again, something more on the order of a toy).
2, They only make one sloping cut and the two shoulder cuts. They did trim the end, but they didn't mention a chisile point. Either they made it while trimming or maybe didn't make it at all.
3. Didn't trim the fletching. As is pointed out in the video, contemporary paintings and drawings show the fletching all or partially removed. Again, this may have been due to the toy aspect.
In a related note, have come across straightened turkey feather quills, circa 19th Century. These seem to have been used as handles for a socketed nib, and were not cut at all.
Note the desk in the video. Have seen that called a Captain's Desk. They fold up in a box with all your writing materials. Very cool.
On paper:
It won't look period, but tabloid sized (11 x 17) can be found at office supplies.
It won't look period, but tabloid sized (11 x 17) can be found at office supplies.
Was posting about Rapidograph technical pens under the Hero 9296 topic, and remembered something that ties in with these videos. One of the videos tells of how the scribe had to prepare the writing surface so it would take the ink better and more consistently. The old spec manuals we had for mapping said to do the same, and called the process "pounce," IIRC. We were using Myar when I used technical pens, so that wasn't a concern. It's still interesting that a procedure dating back hundreds, maybe thousands, of years was common past the middle 20th Century.
I will have to revisit this thread when I have some audio ability. Interested in the ink video.
Looking up technical pens on Wikipedia brought this little video to my attention - an antique dotted-line drafting pen...
File:Dotted Line Tool from the 1930s.webm - Wikipedia
File:Dotted Line Tool from the 1930s.webm - Wikipedia
- Thread starter
- #7
They have another!
