22 Chapter 22: Preparations part 1

After doing some random things, I address the people I saw yesterday to continue our conversation on how to create the scrolls.

Also this thinking about developing paper, since the paper is more "easy to do" with so many trees I thought.

The scrolls need animal skins and the process is long, but not so long the question is in the fact that I can not be killing the animals for their skins so that is practically not a very good long-term option, but They are the best I can with what I have at the moment.

I am planning to leave them as a task to develop paper, I had tired of writing on clay, I told them that writing in clay is very impractical etc, etc, we must improve that to a creation of a material that is easier to transport, and less delicate that the baked clay, that when falling is damaged causing that information is lost, that if it is not because always I command to create several of that same content it would have become a mess.

After arriving at the place, I began to explain how to create a scroll, which is the most developed form of writing to document so far in my opinion, I want to develop the scrolls because I'm not sure how long it will take to create paper.

The parchment is also another method to develop a faster writing, and transportable over great distances, I will need to document many things during the trip.

I need to record locations, places where there are minerals, animals, among other things that I consider important and in the future will be useful to me, as well as the location of some exotic animal species, if I find the moment in the future I would like to capture some of those species.

After thinking about how the scrolls are created, I got in touch with some tailors, and artisans, the village tanners, and gave them a long lecture on how to make and develop the scrolls.

For starters, not all skins are suitable for them to be converted into scrolls, according to what I know clearly.

* FlasBack *

At a conference that I had attended because of some colleagues who were interested in this process by an expert, ... I saw some scrolls dating from the time of the King ... In the age ... They explained the process of how they converted the skins of the animals apt to develop the scrolls.

After his long explanation of what they had found on that scroll, and other things, he began to explain the process by which those scrolls were created, after a while of talk he got to the point of his explanation and I understood how they were doing them.

I thought that the scrolls were a process made of some kind of paper, I had never paid much attention to the process, but it caught my attention and I paid attention to the explanation.

Not all skins are apt to become parchments.

First, there was a way to do so that the skin of the animals, some of them because the skins of the animals that could be used were pigs, sheep were the best, roof racks and others, but of these animals those who had skins Light colors were the best.

The skins do not have to have wounds or scars, since this would hinder the writing process when the parchment is finished.

If the animal had not been bled properly, the blood would leave very characteristic marks on the parchment.

I had sent to collect a lot of piles in the village, of the animals that had already killed a while ago I had already done them a while ago.

And the proper treatment since the newly removed skin tends to rot if it is not treated and the skins of the villagers did not work much since they were not treated properly and I had to rule out many of them.

So I set out with some carvers to make the process slow.

Phase 1.

1. Put the skin in a large bucket with cold, clean water, if possible, running water.

2. Hair removal: the skin is prepared in a large wooden tub with water and lime, that process lasted a few days.

I had to send a lot of tubs big enough for this process, since before long I had to leave and I had forgotten this completely, so I ordered it to be done.

3. After the skin has soaked for a few days, lay down on a table and begin a series of operations, is the process of completely removing the epidermis and hypodermis, and completely stretch the part of the dermis, called reticular stratum.

4. The first thing to do was to place the skin on a curved wooden plate and begin the process of detaching the hair, thus removing the hair and fat from the skin to be able to complete this process, if the skin was still greasy at the end of this process, I would return to the water tub with lime, this way it was started again until the fat was completely eliminated from the skin, leaving the skin suitable for the next process.

5. The other process would be to do the same but on the side of the meat, thus removing the residues of meat and fat that could remain attached to the skin.

6. The skin is then washed, in clear water, in order to clean the lime left on the skin.

Phase 2: The skin to parchment.

1. The skin still soaked, hangs on a wooden frame, large enough to stretch the skin in all directions, this box contains many wooden pins on all edges, to adjust the tension of the skin and be able to stretch, The skin is hung by a kind of grips to not harm the skin either, but strong enough to hold the attention of it.

2. After the skin is attached to the frame, begins the process of scraping the skin, with a semi-circular knife and blunt, called Lunelum, to have the name of half moon; The purpose of this process is to scrape the skin as deeply as possible, especially on the inside.

3. As the process progresses, the parchmentmaker continues to adjust the tension, tightening the pins on the edges of the frame, and when satisfied with the results, let the skin dry in the sun.

4. As the skin is stretched, any cut however small, visible plowing at the time the skin is stretched, will be seen as circular or oval breaks, you have to discover them in time and be attentive with the skins to correct and sew them on time.

5. Once all dry, continue the scraping process, especially on the side of the hair, in order to eliminate the satiny gloss, which would prevent the ink from fixing, and to reduce the thickness of the parchment.

I will create a new profession, Pergaminero so there will be those who are responsible for creating this while not affecting the work of others, this will not affect the other professions grabbing the labor hand of other jobs as tailors.

So, send to gather many of your students to also learn in this conference on how to make the scrolls that I am giving, doing the process myself and they observing the proper procedure and the guidelines to take, that took me about 5 days to explain everything how to make them, had already ordered to order a lot of these frames, and the knives had already sent them to do a long time ago, it was that he had completely forgotten, with the research in the Aqua clan and the other things , that he did not remember about the parchments.

6. When you are satisfied with the result, the parchment-maker (I in this case) gives up the now calling parchment because it is no longer animal skin but parchment, and begins the process of cutting it into leaves polishing them with a pumice stone, and rubbing them with plaster .