Brush-up post on erasing…

[hatam_soferet]

I’ve been neglecting you a bit, I’m afraid. This is because I’ve been posting regular posts for my current Torah client at their special blog, and I haven’t had energy to do two lots of posts or to set up proper cross-posting. Check out last week’s post A single mistake invalidates the entire sefer Torah (with spiffy new photographs) and then continue reading below:

A few weeks ago I wrote this in the Torah:
עד ישבת המים, the nonsensical phrase until the feminine singular water sat [thanks Heloise for pointing that out]. The passage in question is וישלח את הערב ויצא יצוא ושוב עד יבשת המים מעל הארץ, He sent forth the raven, and it went out repeatedly and returned, until the waters had dried up from the earth.

יבשת vs ישבת, you see. Both versions make sense, but one of them is wrong, and so it has to be fixed.

Tools for fixing, left to right: electric eraser, scalpel, burnishing tool, rose thorn, eraser.

As discussed last week, you first remove the ink. Some like to use electric erasers for this; with the right grade of abrasive tip, the electric eraser makes short work of the ink. At present I’m in a phase of preferring a scalpel; what you lose on speed, you gain in finesse.

Eventually it’s all gone. At this point, you use the eraser to clear any bits of ink that didn’t brush off. Then you burnish the surface so that it’s good to write on. You use the rose thorn to re-score the line (it’s hard and about the right thickness to match the existing lines, plus extensive biblical/poetic symbolism of roses).

Rewrite properly. They stand out a bit while they’re still wet…

…but once they’ve dried you can’t really tell the difference.

Mirrored from hasoferet.com.

Comments

[cremains]

I have some questions.

1. How do you erase so nicely? I cannot escape the hideous smudge. Maybe you have some tips for scalpel use.

2. Can you please go into more detail about the burnishing tool and how to use it?

[hatam_soferet]

1. Practice mostly and judicious use of an eraser. And making sure you have a decently sharp knife. I'll try and think of how to convey this in a blog post; it might involve videos, which are not my strongest point.

2. Yes. I've got some good photos for that somewhere. I'll try to dig them out.