Parchment Tools:

The French word for harrow is herse. The herse is being pulled by the cheval.

A harrow is "an implement consisting of a heavy frame set with teeth or tines which is dragged over plowed land to break up clods, remove weeds, and cover seed."

A portcullis can also be called a herse. I'm guessing because of the pokey bits. Looks like you could break up some clods with that. [Pun intended.]

A Tennebrae hearse candelabra -- used in Catholic services during Holy Week -- looks a lot like a harrow.

One of two surviving hearses in the U.K., the Marmion Tomb. In this form, a hearse is permanently placed over a coffin and decorated with candles. I'm not sure when the spelling changed to add the A.

An elaborate medieval hearse with many candles. Wax was used as a moldable material to ornament the hearse in addition to providing light from candles. Hearses like this were temporary, made quickly to rest over a coffin between death and burial.

Funeral Procession of Bishop John Islip, 1532. Fifteen years after this procession, Henry VIII died and had three different hearses at different locations. You can read about it here. Imagine the grandeur.

A Victorian hearse, one step closer to the hearses as we know them modernly. From farm implements to funeral processions, etymology is fun.

A herse is made with simple construction, frequently using 2x4s, but large dimension lumber can also be used. I wouldn't go smaller than 2x4s, too much potential to torque. Herses can be leaned up against a wall for support, or have legs added for freestanding, which helps when teaching at events. When dressed with a hide a herse is under a lot of tension, so it's important to build it to be strong. Make the best, cry once.

Learn from my mistake and don't try to cut corners by using something that you have lying around. At first I thought I might use some 2x4s quickly nailed together. I settled on this already made stand base for first attempt, which turned out to be not a great idea.

I added hinged legs to a well-made, but tiny, stand I had in the garage. The idea was sound, but the 1/4 size really only works for stillborn-lamb-sized hides. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Full-sized lamb hides are pretty big once stretched. And what about calf hides? Even bigger. If you are serious about parchment making it's worth the effort to have more than one.

My first parchment was possibly the finest, most delicate parchment I will ever make. I had no idea how hard it is to work with stillborn hide. It is so fragile and tears easily. This photo shows it before it turned into Franken-parchment and garnered the attention of David de Rosier-Blanc, who I think took me on as a charity case.

You can see I'm not too excited to be building the herse, but knew it had to be done. David de Rosier-Blanc convinced me to do a good job.

Beginner lap joinery for the corners. I used a table saw to cut a bunch of strips to a certain depth, about half way through the 2x4. Both pieces of wood get the carved out lap.

I used a hacking tool to get the bits out (technical term). I then used a chisel to finish the joint.

Turned out better than expected. I can see here that some of my lumber was slightly smaller than 2x4 and it worked out ok. I was using what I had on hand.

All the joints finished. Next I drilled two holes set on the diagonal in each corner.

Joints were secured with bolts that run through from front to back, secured with nuts and washers, two per corner.

Many holes were drilled for the moveable wooden pegs used to secure the lines. You want a lot of choices to accomodate the variety of hide shapes.

I needed a different kind of bit to not get the blow out effect on the back side. This is a cosmetic issue only. It works fine since it's on the back.

All the pegs are made from dowel, which is cut from a length and sanded into a slight taper. I used an electric orbital sander vice to do this work.

Legs added at top of herse with hinges and cross bracing. I made about forty pegs.

Finished size is about 46" x 88" with a working area of 40" x 62". I wish it was a little bigger. I end up cutting off more of the hides (legs mostly) than I'd like.

I didn't draw up plans for this project, but worked with lumber I had on hand, which determined the final size of the herse. I didn't plan this fit, just got lucky.

This illumination, plus some vintage film footage of a British parment shop, and similar tools used modernly at Pergamena in the U.S. all informed my design choices for my homemade lunellum.

"An early illustration of a parchment maker preparing the surface of the skin with a lunellum, or rounded knife. Detail from Msc. Patr. 5, fol 1r, around 1150. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek." This lunellum is more like what I prefer to use.

German, 1568, from the Wikipedia parchment page. His lunellum is a full moon.

"The Parchment Maker" Engraving by Christoph Weigel, from Abbidung und Bescreibun der gemeinnützlichen Hauptstände, Regensburg, 1698.

Big thanks to Rauðhrefna Skeggadóttir for the brilliant ide of using ulu blade blanks for our DIY lunellums.

My first iteration of my two experimental lunellums was modelled after the lunellum in the medieval illumination with the blade perpendicular to the handle and that appears to run through the blade with equal amount of handle on each side. I used easy-to-purchase materials so that I could get to the fun part: making the parchment.

WIP shot: Ulu blade blank (they come in various styles and are easily found online) with a threaded metal rod (found at Ace hardware) running through a piece of oak (I drilled a hole), secured with some nuts, washers, and screws. I dulled the pointed corner bits of the blade to reduce the possibility of poking holes in the parchment.

Second iteration has a handle only on one side of the blade, like a short-handled garden hoe. [Side note: some people recommend sharpening a hoe into a lunellum. The most popular homemade lunellums are made from a modified circular saw blade, using the center hole to run a rod through for the double handled style.] I found that when I'm using the two handled lunellum I couldn't scrape as efficiently and that the handle would touch the parchment. Maybe I don't have proper technique? Maybe my handles are a little too long? I found using the single handle version worked fine for me and was plenty ergonomic.

If you really don't want to make your own lunellum you can buy this round knife. It's about $50. My DIY lunellums were about $17 each. The parchment groups will tell you this "isn't a real lunellum," that "it's not ergonomic," "doesn't have the right handle position," yadda yadda. I say, do what works for you. I use this knife sometimes, and my single handled lunellum sometimes. It's good to switch up hand position to reduce fatigue.

You can see in this illumination that the fleshing beam has a leg of some sort. Sometimes, modernly, people use fleshing beams that don't have legs, but just rest against their abdomen. I've worked primitively with a deer hide on a tree in the forest, and before I made the beam I tried a using my big propane tank. Many things can work, but for fine parchment you will want a smooth surface to work against. A large diameter plastic pipe cut lengthwise is great if you can get it.

The angle on my fleshing beam is pretty steep, but works ok for me. I screwed a length of pipe onto the 2x4 with some metal L-brackets. I stuff a garbage bag at the top to soften the edge so it doesn't damage the hide. A lot of weight from the wet hide pulls down on that edge and wants to bite into the hide. You also need to lean against the beam to hold the hide onto the beam.

My bad design is very poor and hasn't stood the test of time, weight, and pressure. It's structurally weak and wobbles. I've tried some quick repairs, but really just need to design something better. It would also be more efficient if the diameter of my pipe was wider and matched the curve of my Necker 600.

This is the messiest part of parchment making. To cover up, I buy fleshing aprons from Murray's Lures & Traps. I've also worn a black trash bag with arm and neck holes cut out.

Homemade: This is David de Rosier-Blanc's homemade fleshing knife made from a section of a sawmill bandsaw blade. Originally about 1.75" wide with teeth on, but all the teeth removed make it about 1.25" wide. Notice how it looks like the illumination above.

Knife: If the knife has just the right amount of dullness, and the user has good skills, this can work. It's not a great idea for beginners.

Store bought: I bought the Necker 600 on a recommendation. It works great. It has a dull side for scraping and a sharp side for when you need to cut off stubborn pieces. Highly recommended and worth the $70.

Other ideas: You can use a specific deer leg bone as a fleshing knife, but I haven't tried it. Here is an explanation of that process. I've also seen teachers use wooden rulers as fleshing knives when working with children.