FAQ's

What is the difference between parchment, vellum, and leather?

 

As far as parchment and vellum go, the difference is pretty much semantic at this point in history. The roots of the words come from different sources. Parchment arrived in the English language from the German Perkament, which in turn came from Pergamena in Italian (and before that, Pergamena in Latin). We can reach back even further to the word Pergamon, from antiquity, which referred to the city in Asia Minor where the material was first recorded as being mass produced. These days, parchment in general refers to any type of animal skin turned into a paper-like material from physical action, including the removal of extraneous flesh, fat, and hair.

 

Meanwhile, vellum comes from the Old French word Velin, which means calfskin. Historically speaking, calfskin has been the finest parchment available, so people have long referred to refined parchment as vellum. Here’s a simple formula: All vellum is parchment, but not all parchment is vellum.

 

Leather refers to the same raw material — animal skin — that has been chemically altered to render it impervious to rot. There are many ways to tan a skin, and the resultant leather will vary in characteristics, but it will always stand up to moisture, heat, and mechanical action better than any untanned/raw skin.

 

How are parchment and leather used?

 

The first parchments were simply unrefined animal skins. But over time, parchment production practices became increasingly refined until parchment became a legitimate writing surface. By the 15th century, parchment had eclipsed papyrus as the more stable, available, and preferred writing material. After the invention of the printing press and before the wide adoption of paper, parchment was also seen as the preferred material for use in printing — a prime example of this is the Gutenberg Bible. The material’s durability also led to its widespread use in bookbinding. And this is just the beginning. Parchment is also used for drumheads, in harpsichords, and as hinge material in some instruments. In the last century and a half, parchment usage has expanded to include applications such as furniture paneling and interior wall paneling.

 

Leather tanning was first conceived as a way to preserve animal skins from rotting and disintegrating. The skins could then be used for writing surfaces, clothing, armor — basically, for any surface in need of upholstering. When the Industrial Revolution rolled around, leather found expanded usage for things like belting in newly invented machines and innovations in footwear. Today, leather is seen in everything from car seats to key chains.

 

How long does it take to make parchment and leather?

 

Over the past millennium, the process of making parchment and leather shrunk months to a week or less. We have modern chemicals to thank for this much swifter production period. The process has gone from taking months to now being able to be done in a week or less. On the whole, though, leather still takes much longer, owing to the time necessary to get chemicals and tanning substances to penetrate all the way through a skin.

 

How do you bind a book with parchment?

 

If it’s thick enough to remain rigid, parchment can be used as the cover of a book on its own. In this case, the parchment would be sewn onto the text block (the body) and would be considered a limp vellum binding. Parchment can also be attached to boards and then bound onto a text block. This would be a vellum-over-boards binding.

 

What causes red rot disintegration in vegetable-tanned leathers?

 

Red rot results from sulfur dioxide in air pollution combining with tanning agents in certain types of leathers. This creates sulfuric acid in the leather, which in turn lowers the pH level and causes the leather to disintegrate. This often leads to the need for conservation of many books.

 

How should I store my parchment?

 

Parchment is not meant to stay flat. It was once wrapped around an animal and it is only through tremendous stretching and drying of the skin under tension that it reorients the skin fibers into a very thin but very dense skin fiber lattice. Too much environmental moisture and humidity will cause the fiber network to start to loosen and expand and warpage will start to become apparent. Likewise, too dry an environment will cause it to shrink and become stiffer. When the parchment warps, the entire surface is likely to move in several directions at once. We've found the best way to store parchment to keep problems to a minimum is to store it in a stable @ 55% humidity environment, and to keep it gently rolled up head to tail (along the spine direction of the skin). This will obviously cause it to curl, but the curl will at least be predictable in that it will only be in one direction. When you are about to use the parchment, gently roll it in the opposite direction for a day or so.

 

How do I make my own stretching frames?

 

We get this question a lot from people who are hunters, DIYers, or artists, among others, who want to stretch their own skins. We developed them just by trial and error but it is a fairly simple design and most (but not all) of the parts are easily available locally:

 

- Four 8' 4" x 4" beams for the body of the frame, but you can make the frame as large or small as is comfortable

 

- 8 6" x 1/4" lag screws

 

- A 1-1/8" spade drill bit

 

- A 7/8" spade drill bit

 

- 40 Clothesline Tighteners ex: here.

 

- 40 Leather spring loaded toggle clips ex: here.

 

- Several yards of nylon 1/4" cord rope

 

Our frames are roughly 6' tall x 5' wide inside. This gives us an area about the shape of a skin that we can handle. Cut the top and bottom 8' 4" x 4" rails to a length of 5'. The side pieces will remain 8' and the top and bottom 5' rails are set in @ 1' from top and bottom. This allows for the frame to be stood against a wall with a foot of clearance on the top and bottom. Drill out and screw in the lag screws to attach the bottom and side rails together, 2 per joint for a total of 8. Drill out the outside of the side and bottom rails with the 1-1/8" spade bit to a depth of 1-1/2" at intervals of 5" on center around the frame. Drill out the remainder of the distance through the rails using the 7/8" spade bit. Feed the ropes through the line tighteners, seat them in the drilled out holes, then tie on the toggles and the frame is ready to go. This design can obviously be adapted to fit the size of the hides being worked on. We're happy to share the design and would like to hear if anyone builds them and how they work. Also, any suggestions for improvements you may want to share would be helpful to everyone... Here.

How do I polish leather?

 

Leather can be polished many different ways, depending on the type of leather. The fact that ours is a vegetable tanned leather with a smooth grain allows for a lot of surface manipulation, either by burnishing and applying heat and pressure, or by applying a polish of some kind. A search online shows that there are almost too many leather polishes out there to mention... Just make sure you use the right type of polish on the right type of leather. The wrong polish on a piece of leather can ruin it! Check out our forum for more tips on polish resources.

 

When does Pergamena do workshops?

 

We normally hold them in mid-spring when the weather has had the chance to warm up a little. We take names on a rolling basis and typically try to top off each workshop around 13 people. If you’re interested, please email us and we’ll contact you when we have a large enough group together to organize a workshop.

 

Do you have a resource list for parchment and leather?

 

We have managed to collect a select list of leather and parchment production handbooks, treatises, and articles that are floating around online. These are resources that we’ve found useful, but by no means is this an exhaustive list. Visit our Parchment Paper Resources to peruse the list.

 

Do you offer personal commissions and/or designs?

 

We do. And we’d be happy to speak with you about personal designs and commissions, whether you know exactly what you want or just have an idea that you’d like to tease out a little. Feel free to email us at info@pergamena.net to discuss the particulars of your project.

 

Can I request parchments or leathers in special colors or types?

 

We do provide an extensive range of custom colors and leather types. Contact us at info@pergamena.net to let us know what you’re looking for and we’d be happy to produce or source it for you.

 

What is Mike Rowe like?

 

As you may have known, we’ve now been featured on Dirty Jobs twice, which means we’ve had ample opportunity to get to know the show’s host, Mike Rowe.

 

We may have a dirty job here at Pergamena, but at least we’ve had the chance to get used to it. No such luck for Mike. When he jumps into a job, he jumps headlong, without much of a clue of what he’s getting himself into. And this makes it all the more amazing that he manages to stay so (genuinely) nice and good humored as he plods through a 10–14 hour day, learning the ropes and shooting footage for an episode. We all agree that Mike is among the friendliest, most patient, and most polite guys we've had the chance to cross paths with — and probably the most famous, too.

 

Can people come visit your facility/studio?

 

Without a doubt. Pergamena is open to the public and we’re happy to show visitors around during our weekday work hours. Advance notice does help us carve out some time, though, so please contact us ahead of time if you’d like to arrange a visit.

 

Do you do trade shows?

 

When the right trade show presents itself, you can expect to find us there. Please see our News page for a listing of trade shows and other Pergamena events.

 

What are the differences between animal types?

 

The Meyer family has utilized numerous different types of animal skins for both parchment and leather over the years, gaining an intimate knowledge of the different characteristics and attributes that each type presents.

 

Currently at Pergamena, we produce parchment on four different types of animal skin: goat, calf, deer, and sheep. The most telling difference between the parchments of these animals is the grain, or the outside surface which contains the hair follicles. Goat usually has a rough, almost crackly, pattern to it that resembles the surface of asphalt, and can have a lot of fairly noticeable scars and marks, due to the wear and tear the hide experiences during the animal's life. Calf has a much smoother, flatter surface characterized by the broad pattern of thick fat wrinkles and finer veins that spiderweb across the skin. Deer, being wild animals, have the most prominent display of scars, punctures, scrapes, and bites of all our skin types. Sheep have a very similar granular pattern to goat, but can usually be recognized by the smaller size of the "pebbles" in the grain. Because of our manufacturing process, all of the animal types can be prepared with anything from smooth, flat finishes to none at all.

 

Richard E. Meyer and Sons offers two major types of bookbinding leather: goat and calf. Similar to how these types differ in parchment, their leather counterparts maintain the same defining grain characteristics. Goat has a very granular, asphalty appearance to it that can be anywhere from very rugged and prominent to fine and muted. Calf has a fairly flat, smooth grain delineated by fat wrinkles found predominantly around the neck and sides of the hide.

 

Who is this Richard guy?

 

Richard E. Meyer & Sons is named for Karl’s grandfather (Jesse’s great-grandfather). It was Wilhelm Meyer who brought the family business overseas around 1830, at which point the Meyers had been tanning for, oh, a couple of centuries. Wilhelm’s son, Richard, took over, followed by Richard’s son Richard E. In 1950, Richard E. incorporated the business under his name. After Richard E. comes Walter, who begat Karl, who begat Jesse. And there you have it.

 

Do you sell suede?

 

The short answer is yes. Suede is actually the flesh side of a piece of leather. The other side is called the grain, which is smooth and often glossy. Suede that’s still attached to the grain is called reversible suede. It’s more durable because the grain is holding the flesh together. When you buy our leather, you can use whichever side you prefer. The other type of suede has actually been sliced off the grain, which makes it more delicate and apt to tear apart. We do not sell this type of suede.

 

What is pyrogallol?

 

Pyrogallol is a term used to describe a type of vegetable tanning agent. It has a high percentage of “non-tans,” or non-reactive substances that help to fill the leather. The more non-tans, the less tannins there are available to react with air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, and the more resistant the leather is to degradation. It is a slow process, but it is more stable over time than fast-acting catechol tanning agents (the alternative vegetable tanning agents) which are susceptible to red rot. Pyrogallol materials are often harvested from trees such as chestnut, oak, sumac, myrabolan, and tara, among others.

 

What is gilding?

 

Gilding is the practice of applying metal leaf or foil, usually gold or silver, to the parchment or leather surface. It is often employed for decorating edges and borders of books or manuscripts.

 

What’s a substrate?

 

Substrate is simply the material to which the parchment has been veneered. This can be a wood product, metal, glass — we’re always experimenting with materials.

 

What is a parchment application?

 

Parchment can be applied as a veneer to various substrates. Application possibilities are endless, but we most often make panels which are then used for high-end furniture — doors, room dividers, desks, etc. — or interior installations, such as a mosaic wall. Please see the Sigunik Studio page and the Pergamena Gallery for images.

 

What is counter balancing and why do you do it?

 

Counter balancing means applying parchment to both sides of a panel, because veneering just one side would cause the panel to warp, sometimes quite dramatically. All veneers expand and contract, creating a certain strength of pull on substrates, and parchment’s pull is very strong. We usually have to counter balance panels even if one side will not be seen. That is, if you order a parchment panel and you plan to mount it to something else, we still have to put parchment on both sides so the panel will remain stable.

 

Can you use something other than parchment to counter balance?

 

We are often asked if we can use a less costly veneer to counter balance our parchment panels, and the answer is, unfortunately, no. Other veneers don’t have as strong a pull as parchment and will still allow some warping. And we always use the same type of hide on both sides. However, if the back of the panel is not going to be seen, we use a second quality skin to counter balance.

 

What types of things can you put parchment on?

 

The possibilities are truly endless. We’re always experimenting with new ways to use parchment. We have veneered an array of substrates from woods to metals to acrylics. If you have a specific idea in mind, we offer research and development to find a viable construction method for new designs. Please contact us if you’d like to discuss custom applications.

 

How do you apply parchment?

 

It’s a secret. No, actually, parchment panellers each have their own way of working, which they’ve drawn from their unique experience and developed through trial and error. Most people play it pretty close to the vest. At Sigunik, we employ various techniques depending on the project, and often work out new techniques to solve specific design challenges. If you’re interested in learning to veneer with parchment, the best thing you can do is buy parchment (from Pergamena!) and a few kinds of adhesives (we love our hot hide glue) — and then just start experimenting.