I take the quill and iron it with a heavy iron, then shape it. I prefer a slightly rounded tip.
It's the only thing I iron, really. You can also cut a piece of delrin and glue it to the feather, in that case, you need not iron it. It is sort of permanent press. There are a number of other materials you can use, including thin strips of polished wood. A matchbook cover sounds terrible. dt At 01:13 PM 6/5/2008, you wrote: >At 02:57 PM 6/5/2008, LGS-Europe wrote: > >How do people make their (medieval) plectra? I have chopped up and sanded > >down some turkey feathers, different techniques, different > >thickness/stiffnes, but I'm only half convinced of the sound. > > > >Advice much appreciated. > > > >David - To be honest, I still like my Fender heavy best, but it looks soo > >un-cool on stage. ;-) > >I don't use quill on medieval lutes, but I do on early Neapolitan mandolins >(which use strings of silver-wound silk on g, twisted brass harpsichord >wire on d', plain brass wire on a' and octave g', and gut on e''). I have >used goose quill prepared following this procedure: ><http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=263874652887a855b1a3a0ff8f6a6f14;act=ST;f=6;t=15088> > >Personally, no matter how much I practice the fabrication of such things, >natural quill simply is terribly variable. Some will make exquisite >sounding and playing plectra and some will sound thin and tinny; some will >be long-lived and some will split along their length almost immediately; >etc. I have found excellent and consistent results using a particular >model of Bic pen: ><https://www.bicpens.com/2007/BRSG.cfm> > >Best, >Eugene > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
