Now you can remember your porcupine as something used for more than just a toothpick holder. Now its quills can be part of a successful, efficient, and time-saving process to restore a coin.
Then find a 1/16" diameter x 2 ¼" sewing needle. Then place it alongside of a newly trimmed quill having a length of 1 ¼".
This is 'the' most important step in this tutorial. The two brown/orange arrows indicate the point within the quill where the needle 'must' stop. The tip of the quill gradually becomes narrower, darker and correspondingly stronger as one progresses from right to left in this photo.
Try to use a quill having a diameter close to or a bit more than the diameter of the pin:
To ensure that the needle does not pass this point one can simply mark ¼"(a.k.a 2/8") of this metal surface with a magic marker in the area between the two white needles.
To preserve the longevity of this mark for future uses with the same needle, first roughen up the needle's surface with a metal file or similar. I used white-out since it was closest to me in my desk drawer. Any chosen pigment color will permeate through the minute file scratches without wearing off.
For example, if the mark on the needle is 2/8" long, one-half or 1/8" of it should 'ALWAYS' remain exposed outside of the quill after the insertion. This is critical to ensure that the metal needle tip never touches the patina of the coin etc.
Then take the expended ballpoint ink cartridge and cut off the metal tip(red arrow) where the ink would normally exit leaving essentially a thin but very rigid straw.
Then insert the the end of the needle with the threading hole into the cartridge opening where the ball point tip previously resided.
After that wrap Scotch tape around the joined ends of the ink cartridge and pin/quill device. By doing this the quill can never move backwards thus avoiding the potential exposure of the metal pin tip to the coin's patina.
The end result should be something like this which is a 100% improvement in terms of more easily handling and maintaining the integrity of the quill.:
I placed a transverse view of the opposite end's screw-on cap filled with semi-flexible rubber material. This cap and contents screws on the end opposite to the quill-tipped end.
Its configuration prevents the quill from slipping back into the pen when pushing down into a coin for example. The flexible rubber allows for some firm give to accommodate ink cartridges that may be a bit too long etc.
Additional beneficial modifications exist that can prevent the quill tip from wiggling when using this device on a coin. I can elaborate on these later if so desired.
, what the holy Heck ! By the time I get through all those steps I'll die of old age . And another thing; where in gods name am I suppose to find a porcupine in southern New York , The Bronx Zoo ?
T-BOP, that's no big deal since my first photo of the fake miniature porcupine covered with toothpicks sticking out was a bit misleading. I can see how anyone not totally aware of this application scenario could easily assume that a ppine quill user might have to engage in the hunting of ppines to finalize the deal.
Someone already mentioned that ppine quills are readily available on ebay but I feel I should still do some community service by waving a reg flag of caution.
The following short three minute video shows how our ppine queen obtains her quills. But notice that she wears gloves when doing this:
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There is nothing more painful in this world than being stuck by a ppine quill. One cannot simply pull them out of human skin without also pulling out about a Qtip's diameter width of skin and blood: ouch!
These quills are very similar to the barbs of a fishhook making it nearly impossible to move them backwards. Removing quills is not the focus of this thread but I wanted nonetheless to mention this as a motivator to be VERY careful when handling them. Searching for videos of people trying to remove them is something to be left for only the strongest...
Quote: I wanted nonetheless to mention this as a motivator to be VERY careful when handling them
I second that. These are not like the quills of a feather.
Just a side note...if anyone decides they want to try to harvest some thinking it looks easy Please do us a favor and bring along a video camera! I gotta see that!
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Posted 09/24/2016 3:22 pm
, what the holy Heck ! By the time I get through all those steps I'll die of old age . And another thing; where in gods name am I suppose to find a porcupine in southern New York , The Bronx Zoo ? 
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