Oh, I'm brand new here, but I'm thrilled I have something to contribute! (but I'm sad this is the first reply to this thread on quills)
I always use turkey quills with my students - they're great, and easier to get where I live. I don't find them very different from goose. You can even use pheasant or grouse or any other bird feather, as long as it's one of the three primary flight feathers (the big ones on the outside). The other feathers are too soft. Get friendly with some of your local hunters, if you can, for a steady supply.
I'm sure you're tempering them and getting all the fluff out of the shaft after your first cut, but you could adjust the tempering a bit. Sometimes I cook them a little too hard, and then they get a bit brittle, and it's hard to get a really clean edge.
But if you're happy with the tempering, you could try to shave a little more of a bevel at the very end of the nib. That's usually my last cut. You have to have a WICKED SHARP knife though; I spend a lot of time honing my pen knives. (a sharp knife is a safe knife! none of my students have lost a finger yet!)
A little reservoir is a good idea too - the bit of aluminum can you describe is good, but once it's glued on, you can't really recut the quill -well, okay, you can, but it'll chew up more of the shaft that way (I like to get at least 3 recuts on a quill before I throw it away). Sometimes I shove a tiny spring up part way into the shaft to help regulate ink flow - the ones in cheap retractable ball-point pens work. You might have to crack open a few of them before you find the right size. You'll have to crack the housing on the disposable ones with a hammer or something - they're usually glued shut. When you want to recut your quill, you can pull it out with some tweezers and then reinsert it. Actually, you'll probably need the tweezers to get it placed right to begin with; make sure it touches the slit that channels the ink down.
--yours, K
