Period Ink Guidelines - What were they drawn with?

Recently I've been thinking about period calligraphy guidelines. Not so much as to how they are used, but how they were made. Specifically, I want to know what tool was used to draw the ink lines?

This post details my findings so far. Read on if you are into geeky investigation.

Quills II — Experimentation with Inks

[4/30/14 - Updated to include Higgin's Eternal and Ian's replacement Iron Gall Ink.]

Just over a month ago, I experimented with making & using my own quill pens for the first time. I said at the end of the process that I was happy with my results and there was a good chance I'd be using quills on my next assignment.

Since then, my continued practice has not been going well. My lines were either crisp but very pale, or dark but blotchy.

I described my problems to an online community of scribes in the SCA and was given some advice:

1. Try different inks — the Walnut Crystal and Winsor & Newton inks I normally use with my metal dip nips are a little on the thin side, so it was suggested I try a thicker ink. It probably didn't help that I had just mixed a new batch of the walnut ink, and it's still a bit thin, even when used in metal nibs.
2. Try modifying my inks — Ian the Green has a wonderful article on this very subject. In short, add some gum arabic or let some water evaporate out of the inks to thicken them, or add water to thin them.
3. Try different papers — my initial practice was using some cheap "calligraphy" paper, and not the Pergamenata or Bristol Board I typically use for my projects. The quality of paper can have a huge difference, I should have known to at least try this first...
4. Try different angles for my writing surface — I changed from about 70° to 45° on my writing surface when I first experimented with quills, but further experimentation might be needed.

With this advice in mind, I ordered some new inks and supplies and put the quills aside to work on a few assignments and get ready for an event.

Quills — Experimentation

I've been wanting to try my hand at making and using a real quill pen for a while now. Thanks to my wonderful fiancé and family, I was gifted a number of uncured goose feathers and a quill knife this Christmas!

I haven't had an opportunity to take a class on making quills. So before trying it myself, I scoured the web in search of instructions. Most of what I found seems to agree on the basic steps, but the specifics vary.

1. Prepare the feather — Cut off the tip, clean the membrane from the surface and inside of the barrel, trim it to length, and trim off the barbs to make holding it more comfortable.
2. Cure the barrel of the feather (also referred to as tempering or dutching) — Fresh feathers are too soft and flexible to be cut and used as a pen. The barrel is hardened through aging or heat treating so it can hold its shape and last longer. The methods for this process vary quite a bit: from baking the feathers in an oven, immersing them in hot sand or boiling water, to rolling them against a heated metal surface.
3. Cut the quill — The cutting of the writing tip. The steps vary in order, but the shape of the end result is the same.