As I mentioned a while back in this post, Sifrei Torah written upon mashuach (coated) parchment can be rather painful to repair and maintain.

Log, whitewash, flaking off the back of a parchment sheet

Before beginning the CTC Sefer Torah, I had been contracted by a synagogue in Austin to restore/repair an antique Sefer Torah from Algiers and to have it ready in time for Rosh ha-Shanna…

The work has turned out to be much, much more complicated than I had originally thought.   I have worked on this types of Torahs before, but never one with these sorts of  or severity of issues.  In retrospect, I should have put more effort into my initial examination of the sefer before agreeing to take on the job.

The amount of powdering of the log, the whitewash coating, got extremely bad in the middle of the scroll and has cause a lot of the letters to fade or break.  Many of these injuries to the Sefer render it posul, unfit for synagogue use.  However, any repairs written upon a shifting, powdery surface of decaying whitewash will be only short-lived at best.

This Yeria was coated with improperly prepared whitewash which is now discoloring badly!

So the main problem was one of how to render the surface workable – how to remove all of the loose powder without damaging any of the writing.  Air-blasting and wiping the surface didn’t do nearly enough to remove all of the loose matter.  I really needed some sort of abrasive.  As I have mentioned in prior postings, there is a prohibition against erasing names of G-D. Any abrasive that I used would have to be rough enough to loosen loose particles, but soft enough not to erase or remove fixed ink from letters.

More views of discolored whitewash

I experimented with different A LOT of abrasives, eventually settling on a generic brand of “magic wall eraser” sponge.  Many of the name brands were impregnated with solvents or other chemicals that could damage the scroll, but I found an untreated brand that works great.  Used dry, I gently rub the sponges over the surface and it lifts all the loose powder up enough that I can air-gun off the residue and then wipe the surface down with a dry soft cloth.   This procedure removes almost all of the loose powdered log and ink and, even better, it doesn’t erase or remove ink from the letters.    After experimenting with these erasers extensively and talking to two major poskim, I got the green light to clean the scroll with my “magic erasers.”

As of now, I am almost finished with the major repairs to this scroll.  The  procedure is to first air-gun off the particular sheet to remove the loose surface powder.   I then go over it with the sponge very gently.   Lastly, I air-gun the surface again and then wipe it down with a special dust cloth.  The difference is amazing:

Section before treatment.

After initial air-gunning and dusting

Voila! After sponge-sanding, 2nd air-gunning and dusting.

After all that, it is then possible to actually repair any broken letters with confidence that the repair will remain intact for a good long while.

Oy – I cannot finish this fast enough! I am just itching to get back to devoting my working time to the CTC Sefer Torah, a wonderfully non-mashuach scroll!

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