History of quill pens

[pasta s4l4d]

My dad and I were talking about this yesterday. it's pretty wild that people used to write with bird feathers.
It got me thinking about back when quills were a thing, where did you even get them?

Did the local stationery shop have a pile of perfectly prepped quills? Or did you have to go to a butcher or a poultry farm to buy them?
And how much work did you have to do yourself? I've heard that in big offices, they had people whose only job was to sharpen quills all day. But what about at home or in smaller places? Did people just have to carve their own?

It makes me wonder if a city dweller got their quills differently than someone out in the country. Has anyone ever read anything about this? It's a fascinating thought

 

[Miss gray]

Back in the day, most people just harvested feathers from geese, swans, or turkeys themselves. In cities, some stationery shops sold ready to use quills, but a lot of writers, especially at home, would trim and sharpen their own