Writing implements:

As the scribes of the Middle Ages moved away from papyrus and further toward the use of parchment, they also moved away from the use of reed pens, which were difficult to come by and impractical for northern scribes.  Far cheaper and easier to obtain for the scribes of western Europe were large feathers, generally taken from the wings of live geese.  These feathers, which were generally stripped down to quills, were then cut across the bottom to create an edge for writing.  Most common -- and prized -- were the quills taken from a goose's left wing, as these curved away from the eyes of the right-handed scribes.  As Graham and Clemens note, "in medieval illustrations, scribes are almost never writing with their left hand"; in fact, the few illustrations that do depict a right-handed scribe are "likely to be the result of the accidental reversal of the image used as a model" (18). 

Ink, generally kept in an inkwell or inkstand, could be made using a variety of techniques.  As Graham and Clemens report, "one of the earlist black inks was lampblack," mixed from "dense carbon...gum, and water" (19).  Lampblack was ideal for papyrus manuscripts, and its ability to soak into the reeds made it a quasi-permanent, reliable mixture.  After the shift to parchment, however, lampblack began to lose its dependability, and gained a reputation for a transitory nature.  Rather than soaking in, the ink "sat on top of the parchment and, depending on the proportions of its ingredients, could eventually disintegrate" (Graham and Clemens 19).