This should be a one-reply "thread", but I can't find the answer. Why's it called a quill stem?

Internal self contained retention, no external securement?

It was Captain Quill that discovered the first stem off the Cape of Handlebar Bay in 1882.

Unfortunately, it had been there for a long while without proper lubrication and was stuck.

Look at the business end of this quill pen and you'll have your answer.

Beats me; all I know is it's a 3T stem on my Bianchi Nuovo Racing. Maybe the vintage will tell you what you need. Afraid I don't know what you're referring to by external securement.

Internal wedge and bolt on quill, external clamping on threadless.

I have never heard a steering stem called a quill stem. Am I the only one?

They've been called "quill stems" a long time. The term was hardly new when I was riding in the seventies. I suspect Merziac's got it; that those stems are anchored at their "root" by the wedge like the feather of a bird (or a hair on our head - feathers being evolved hair). Most other bike parts are secured where the emerge from the frame, like seaposts. (I doubt the term came from the similarity of the taper at the quill/feather base that you see in the photo above. The early quill stems used a conical wedge and the stem had a squared off cut with all the tapering being inside the stem. Cinelli, TTT, etc. The external wedge Japanese stems came later. The Japanese may well have been using that taper for a long time; bicycles being over a century old there but there was no crosss-over between Japan and the western market until ~1970 and the term "quill" was already well established.)

Ben

I think it's due to the little wedge at the bottom, just saw an interesting Suntour quill seatpost on ebay ... it also has the wedge, never had heard of these.





But this wouldn't explain the plunger variation -- also know as quill, I believe:




pics from ebay.

Very good answer. Thanks and I hate it when my quill gets stuck.

Make sense.

QUILL:



QUINN:

Ditto my experience.
Eric

Sheldon Brown defined "quill" as:

Perhaps the thought was that a stem stuck out of the bike like a feather?


EDIT: I see after re-reading this thread that others had gotten to the same point. More evidence for it, I suppose.

This is correct, but you forgot to mention, that your quill stem can also be used as a quill pen, in an emergency. 🤔😁😉

When Quinn the Eskimo gets here......