Using Crowquill Feeds

Crowquill feeds are small, sensitive, and delicate nibs. Those are the reasons quill nibs are so popular with artists who love the fine lines, delicate behavior, and wide line variation they can get from these nibs. We do our best to support all popular nibs because we enjoy seeing the work that's done using quill nibs.

Unfortunately, you cannot use traditional feeds with quill nibs. In fact, quill nibs have never had a feed until we devised our quill feeds. Without some sort of feeding mechanism, there's no point in putting a quill nib into a fountain pen.

Until now.

The Crowquill Pump Pen shown below contains a feed that secures the quill nib in the pen, feeds ink to the tip of the nib, and channels air back into the pen reservoir to compensate for the lost ink. 

Feed for quill nibs

We do this by providing an adaptor that contains the feed and nib. Slide the adapter into the front of the pen, and you can start drawing with a quill nib and not worry about having to dip all the time. It's easy to slide quill nibs on and off the feed. 

Quill nib and adaptor

Place the back end of the quill nib over the front of the feed, then gently press the nib all the way into the adaptor. The nib fits snugly and won't slide off. Make sure the air hole in the nib ends up in a position directly over the channel in the feed. Next push the adaptor into the front of your Black pen. Make sure the rear tit fits snugly into place in the pen. You should feel it seat into place. 

Once you insert the adaptor into the pen, you don't have to remove the adaptor each time you want to replace or remove the nib. 

Pen with quill adaptor in place

All you have to do is grab the quill nib in the pen with two fingers and gently pull it off the feed and out of the pen. Then slide the cleaned nib or a new nib back into the pen. 

Periodically you might want to remove the adaptor and clean it, but you don't have to. You can flush water through the pen with the adaptor in place, and you'll get the important parts just as clean. 

In another article, we describe how you can expand the flow of ink through your quill nibs.