quills for pens were much in request before the introduction of steel pens.
"England in the Days of Old"
William Andrews
Then the Sun gave Scar Face a buckskin suit decorated with porcupine quills.
"The Sun Dance of the Blackfoot Indians"
Clark Wissler
The young feathers being soft, and the quills not so hard as in older birds, scarcely a rook-shooting ever goes by without some one claiming to have made a tremendous long shot, which is quite possible, as it does not require many pellets or much force behind them.
"Wild Life in a Southern County"
Richard Jefferies