Foster's Practical Penmanship have this below. I will try it today.
Making the penIt is impossible, even for the most skillful to make a good pen, without a good knife; which ought to be kept exclusively for that use. The blade should be narrow, that it may enter the quill with the more ease, and the left side, as held when cutting, a little round or convex. Equally impossible is it to make good pens, without much practice. The following directions I have endeavoured to
make minute and complete; and doubt not that they will enable any person, with proper attention and practice, to make a good pen. But the skill will be much sooner acquired; by nicely observing and imitating an experienced teacher.
As neatness in little things will form a habit that will extend itself to objects of greater importance, commence making your pen, by stripping the broad side of the feather from the stem, and cutting off three or four inches from the top. Then slightly scrape the quill, in the place where the slit is to be made. Hold the barrel firmly between the thumb and fore finger of the left band, with the back of the quill upwards, and the tip of the feather pointing directly in front of the body. Cut off half an inch from the end of the quill, in a sloping direction (fig. 1.) Turn the quill over, and make a similar cut on the other side; which will form two forked points (fig. 2.) Then cut away the same side an inch fron the end, so as to take off about half of the barrel (fig. 3.) Now turn the
grooved part downward, and make a slight incision in the back notch, between the two forked points (fig. 4.): press the left thumb on the back of the quill, about three quarters of an inch from the end, at the point where you wish to have the slit stop: place the right thumb nail under, and in contact with the notch; throw it smartly up, and the proper slit will be produced, (fig. 5.) Then, with the grooved part still continued under, commence cutting on the right side, downwards; for large hand, from a little below the top of the slit; add for small hand, from a little above, which will form what is commonly called a shoulder: cut away the right side, in a straight line, sloping it more and more at every cut; and bringing it ,to a fine point; at the length you intend the slit to be, (fig. 6.) Then turn the quill over, and cut the left side exactly to correspond with the right; so as to bring both prongs, in equal width, to a point, at the slit, (fig. 7.)
Place the thumb on the back of the point, and press it downwards, to make the slit close and firm for nibbing. Then take the quill between the first and second fingers of the left hand; lay the point (with the grooved part downwards,) on the left thumb nail, and take off, in a slanting direction, from about 1/16 of an inch above the nib, on the back of the quill, to the point of the nib on the inside, (fig.8 and 9.) Then, continuing the nib on the thumb nail, place the edge of the knife across it, so as to make the knife and the side of the pen next the haft form an acute angle,* (fig. 7 A,) and cut off a minute portion of the point, in a perpendicular direction.
The right prong of the nib, as held when writing, will be a little longer than the other, for the purpose of making the hair stroke. The slit ought to be about a quarter of an inch long, for a free running hand; and still longer for large hand, in proportion to the size. A pen with a long slit will not only write freely and with ease, but will give a decided distinction between the up and down strokes. The mode of holding and using the knife is important. It should be confined by the balls of the three last fingers, and, by closing and opening the band, be drawn towards the palm. To mend a pen, sharpen the point, and nib it anew, without making a new slit, as long as the old one is of sufficient length.
Those who know how to make a pen, may think the foregoing directions needlessly minute; but it should be recollected that they are designed for learners. With this view, it has been deemed important to give them a precision and a particularity necessary for a person who never saw a pen, and that will enable him, with proper materials and a little practice, to make a good one. And it is considered of the greater importance, because, without good pens, no person can attain to any degree of perfection in the art of writing; and even should a learner become a finished writer, with pens made by his teacher, unless he can afterwards supply himself with this essential implement, properly made, he will inevitably and speedily lose his hand-writing.
* Many good penman prefer nibbing the pen at right angles.