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Quill
Writing instrument made from a feather / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen/metal-nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen.[1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Out_of_ink.jpg/640px-Out_of_ink.jpg)
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As with the earlier reed pen (and later dip pen), a quill has no internal ink reservoir and therefore needs to periodically be dipped into an inkwell during writing. The hand-cut goose quill is rarely used as a calligraphy tool anymore because many papers are now derived from wood pulp and would quickly wear a quill down.[citation needed] However it is still the tool of choice for a few scribes who have noted that quills provide an unmatched sharp stroke as well as greater flexibility than a steel pen.