One of the more frequent questions I receive when I show my work is, "Is that paper?" Many people when looking at a handwritten sefer Torah simply don't have the vocabulary to put words to what they're seeing. The use of parchment and the skill to make it is rapidly vanishing. There is only one producer of parchment in North America, one in Britain and and a few in Israel.
So, what is parchment? It's essentially very thin, very finely scraped rawhide. Really. Now before you go and try to write a mezuzah on a rawhide dog chew, G-d forbid, it's important to realize that although substantively, parchment is rawhide, each skin receives an enormous amount of working over to make it thin, pliable, smooth and suitable for writing.
Because the production of klaf, or parchment, is extremely unpleasant and graphic I propose to simply outline to the reader the basic procedure and provide suitable illustrations where necessary.
The first step in preparing a skin for writing is salting the fresh hide. This must be done immediately after slaughter to prevent bacterial growth and the decay of the skin which would otherwise set in rapidly. Most skins for sifrei Torah actually come from calves in the United States. It is not necessary that calf be slaughtered in a kosher fashion, as long as the skin is from a kosher species, the parchment will be kosher. These skins are shipped in huge numbers to Israel.
When the skins arrive at the klaf factory they are washed in fresh water to remove the salt completely, then air dried. Notice the large pile of dried skins behind the worker in the above image. Next, the skins are hydrated again and placed into a bath of lime-water and left to soak for up to two weeks. This loosens the hair and helps to dissolve fat and other impurities in the skin. At this point, it is absolutely critical that the klaf-maker declare his intention that this skin is being processed for the sake of a sefer Torah, or for writing mezuzot, megillot, or teffillin. Should he fail to do so the klaf would not be kosher. Likewise, if this step were performed by a non-Jew the klaf is invalid for use.
After the skins come out of the lime bath, they are washed again to cleanse them from the lime and then taken to be dehaired and fleshed. Dehairing is carried out by laying the sodden skin over a beam and firmly working the hairside with a dull knife to remove the hair which at this point slips quite easily.
I can say from personal experience, that this is an extremely unpleasant task, hence the look of glee on this man's face. Once dehaired the hide is flipped over and the fleshed. Fleshing removes the tough layer of membrane that lies between the skin and the muscle of the animal. It is extremely tenacious and requires the diligent and patient application of a good knife. Remember when I told you I was going to omit some of the more stomach turning steps of parchment making? Yes? This is one of them. When making parchment, you simply have to set your teeth and do it.
In the production of kosher parchment, but I think not in the production of the secular variety, the skin is washed again and then hung up to air dry once more.
The dried skin is now rehydrated and stretched on a wooden frame where it is allowed to dry under considerable and consistent tension. It would be difficult to understate the importance of performing this step correctly. The skin much be laced to the frame in such a way that it is exactly straight and such that all the tensioning cords are pulled equally taught. This ensures that the skin dries flat and smooth. Uneven tension could result in cockling, or even ripping the skin.
While still on the frame, the skin must be scraped and thinned with a razor-sharp, semi-circular knife called a lunellum, see below.
With short, jabbing motions the worker shaves away all irregularities from the flesh side, and gives the skin a more uniform thickness. The knife must be perfectly sharp, or instead of shaving away layers of skin it will skid across the surface of the parchment leaving a sort of washboard marking.
Next, the skin is washed yet one last time, tightened as necessary and allowed to dry on the frame. The next day it is cut from the frame and rolled carefully until needed.
Beginning to end, it takes about a month of work to produce one skin of parchment. This accounts for it's astronomical price, usually between twenty and forty dollars per square foot. The cost of parchment for one Torah scroll is usually around 4-5,000 dollars. To write one Torah scroll one needs the skins of approximately sixty-two calves.
Here is an interesting video I found from the BBC that illustrates, although in an abbreviated fashion the process of making parchment, it's really very good.
