818 
grained Parchment, or Shagreen, 
hook, and is covered* with thick felt or sheep’s wool on 
which the dry skin may gently rest. The skin is sus- 
pended in the middle of the bench or board to its iron 
hook, by means of one of the holes made in the edge of 
the skin for extending it in its frame as before mentioned § 
and a cord, having at its extremity a stone or a weight, 
is attached to each end of the skin, to keep it in its posi- 
tion while under the hands of the workman. It is then 
subjected to the operation of smoothing and scraping by 
means of two different instruments. The first used for 
this purpose, called by the Tartars tolcar , is a piece of 
sharp iron bent like a hook, with which the surface of 
the shagreen is pretty closely scraped to remove all the 
projecting inequalities. This operation, on account of 
the corneous hardness of the dry skin, is attended with 
some difficulty ; and great caution is at the same time re- 
quired that too much of the impression of the alabuta 
seed be not destroyed, which might be the case if the 
iron were kept too sharp. As the iron, however, is pret- 
ty blunt, which occasions inequalities on the shagreen, 
this inconvenience must afterwards be remedied by means 
of a sharp scraping-iron or uralc, by which the surface 
acquires a perfect uniformity, and only faint impressions 
of the alabuta seed then remain, and such as the work- 
man wishes After all these operations, the shagreen is 
again put into water, partly to make it pliable, and part- 
ly to raise the grain. As the seeds occasion indentations 
in the surface of the skin, the intermediate spaces, by the 
operations of smoothing and scraping, lose some part of 
their projecting substance; but the points which have 
been depressed, and which have lost none of their sub- 
stance, now swell up above the scraped parts, and thus 
form the grain of the shagreen. To produce this effect, 
the skins are left to soak in water for twenty-four hours | 
Yol, ii. q q 
