Do you put anything between the quill and the iron? What temperature
do you use>
On Jun 6, 2008, at 7:45 AM, David Tayler wrote:
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
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