(Kulmus cutting continued…)

We last left off in the last post just having marked guidelines for cutting the nib:

And now we go on to finishing cutting the kulmus (quill)…

Step 9 – Cutting the Nib

• Turn the quill over.  Using a #10 scalpel blade, gently shave both edges of the pesach ha-chetzit to the tip.

• Carefully trim each side, keeping the knife blade always at a right-angle to the wall of the kulumus.  The final product should look like this:

Step 10 – Prepare the Tip.

• With the pesach facing upwards, lay the quill on a table and nick the tip straight across with a straight-edged razor blade.   Press hard and fast for a clean, sharp cut.

Step 11 – Making the Chituch, or Kav

• If you don’t have great eyesight (like me!) then you may want to use a magnifying lens for this step.  Take a double-edged razor blade (they are good and thin) and place it perpendicular to the tip and in the exact middle.  Press gently and slowly,  splitting the tip to a depth of 4 or 5 mm.

• The cut has to be exactly centered, or else the quill will not write as it should.

Step 12 – The Final cut.

• As of now, the tip of the quill is straight.  It is almost impossible to write with a straight quill because our hands naturally hold pens, pencils, etc. at an angle.   So, the tip has to be sliced to an angle.

• There are two ways of doing this, both of which are a constant source of debate among soferim as to which is better.

• The first method, and less used, is to flip the quill over, with the pesach (opening) facing upwards  and, with the straight-edged razor blade, cut about a 30 or 35 degree angle sloping down to the right (if you are right handed).  This makes a nib with an even tip. This is called pshuta.

• The second method, called darga, is done by holding the quill in writing position and pressing the nib onto a hard surface with the same pressure with which you would normally write.  The split at the end of the quill will separate a little.  Then take the straight edged blade, and press straight down, nicking the tip at about a 35 degree angle sloping down to the left.

• Since the tip is spread when you make this cut, the tip will only be even when it is pressed down again with the same degree of pressure.  At rest, the tip is uneven.  Many soferim like this cut because they say it makes for straight lines and leaves a nice sharp tip for making taggim (the crowns on the letters).

• I usually write with a darga quill, but have found that a poshuta is sometimes better depending on the texture of the klaf.

Step 13- Sizing and Testing

• Now that we have a working quill, it has to be sized.  Ideally, you quill-stroke should be 1/6 the height of the line.

• While 1/6 is the theoretical ideal, all the best soferim cut the quill a little thinner, fitting 6.5 or even 7 strokes to the hieght of the line.  I am trying to write like this more nowadays because it is WAAAAY more legible than a 6-stroker.

• Upon first test, the quill was a shade to wide.  I need to trim it a little by shaving the entire length of the nib down to the tip:

• Perfect – 6.5 strokes in the line.  Now to see how it writes.  Many soferim have a minhag to write the word “Amalek” to test their quill, and then immediately blot, cross out, or smear it to fulfill the mitzva of wiping out Amalek.  I prefer to write “shalom” because I can tell a lot about a new quill from how it writes a “shin:”

• Lastly, I put a bend in the quill at the point where the quill falls at the joint between my thumb and hand.   This just makes it more comfortable.

That’s about it!

There are three rules to maintaining the quill:

1) Keep it clean – even a tiny hair or bit of fuzz on the tip can ruin the writing.  Dried ink can also make writing difficult.   The moment something feels funny, stop and rinse the quill in lukewarm water, removing all the ink.  Shake it out, then blow it dry with compressed air.  Also, clean it thoroughly after every use.

2) Keep it sharp – as you write, the nib gets dull.  Sharpen the tip and recut the darga with a blade regularly.

3) Keep it Dry – When not using the quill, make sure that it is kept dry and clean.

Next week, we’ll continue looking at more of the ingredients of making a Sefer Torah…

2 Comments »

1. 

   Rabbi Bloomenstiel,

   Thank you for a fine description of kulmus making.

   I would like to ask – sometimes when I make a kulmus the ink does not flow out from the place of the chituch but comes out in two lines from the two outer points of the kulmus. What am I doing wrong and how can I fix this problem?

   Thank you.

   Avraham Appel

   Comment by Avraham Appel — October 25, 2009 @ 2:39 pm

2. 

   It depends on a lot of things, but most usually there are two scenarios that create that effect:

   1) The walls of the quill are too thick and the split at the nib is too long. This commonly happens with older kulmuses that have been trimmed several times. When writing, the nib doesn’t flex in a vertical plane because of the thickness of the quill wall. Instead then, the charitz just spreads open more on the horizontal plane and you get two lines. Solution – take your knife, holding the blade parallel to the floor and hold the quill with the nib facing away from you. Very gently shave off thin slivers from the top of the nib, thinning out the thickness of the quill wall there. You want to start a little before the start of the charitz and shave all the way along to the tip of the nib. Take off only a very little at a time and test it frequently. This will let the nib flex on the vertical plane and will reduce the horizontal spreading. Just be careful to to cut off too much from the very tip – it will ruin the sharpness of the kulmus.

   2) With newly cut quills you sometimes get this effect if the charitz isn’t long enough. Then the split won’t separate enough to draw ink all the way down to the tip. You only get a little there and it doesn’t fill in the space between the two halves of the split. Solution: extend the charitz only a touch, maybe barely a half-milimeter at a time, until the ink flow is better. If you overshoot the mark, then you will get big blurry amounts of ink coming out and you will have to knick the end, re-trim, re-split, etc., so use caution!

   Hatzlocho rabba! And please let me know how it turns out!

   Comment by Rabbi Avraham Chaim Bloomenstiel, Sofer — October 29, 2009 @ 11:08 pm

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