Make a Quill

Find a feather about 20cm long, goose feathers are best but not essential. Try to avoid crow and seagull feathers because they tend to be very scratchy. Your quill pen will last longer if you harden it. This can be done slowly by leaving it to dry in the air for about a year, or, much more quickly by heating up some sand in an oven or microwave (ask an adult to supervise you) and then dipping the writing end of the feather quickly in and out of the sand several times allowing the feather to cool down between dips.

Using a very sharp craft knife (again with adult supervision) cut from about one cm from the tip, to the tip so that your quill has a slanting end. Further shaping can be done if desired and a small slit (less than 1 cm) made from the tip straight up the shaft of the feather will help the ink flow.

Originally quill pens usually had nearly all the feather strands stripped off but this is up to you.

Make Some Ink

In medieval and Tudor times ink was usually made from oak galls, these are small spherical growths found on some oak trees, they are caused by a kind of wasp.

A simple recipe for oak gall ink

50gms of oak galls 250mls of boiling water 20gms of iron sulphate powder or tablets (available from chemists), or some very iron rich rocks

Crush the oak galls in a pestle and mortar, pour the boiling water over them. Leave this to cool and then wait for approx. 24 hours before straining and stirring in the iron sulphate. If you are using iron rich rocks these can be added to the hot water and gall mixture.

Store your ink in an air-tight container.

Alternatively ink can be made from mixing chimney soot with a little red wine.