Clean the surface carefully with whiting and then alcohol. Make a size by boiling 2 ozs. of best isinglass or gelatine glue in a little hot water. Add this to i quart of alcohol and enough water to make 3 quarts in all. Strain the mixture. Size the surface to be gilded and lay the gold leaf on it. Scatter precipitated chalk on the gold. When dry, polish with silk velvet, after brushing off the chalk. Back the gold with Demar or copal varnish.

In ordinary window work, use good prepared gold size. In case the isinglass size is too weak, add more isinglass. Test on glass before using.

Gilding In General

The first requisite is good gold leaf. It is well to select some well known brand.

For outside work in particular, and on all ordinary work, patent gold may be used. In this case, each leaf of gold has a piece of thin paper slightly adhering to it. The gold and paper can be easily cut to any size desired, and readily applied to the previously sized surface, the gold adhering to the size and the paper loosening from the leaf. Patent gold saves much waste and is a great convenience. Its cost is little above that of ordinary gold leaf.

Ordinary gold leaf may be applied in a similar manner. Lay the book flat upon a table and carefully open the first leaf; cut off the paper leaf just raised with a pair of sharp shears. Rub the paper, laid flat upon the hand, on your hair. Then lay the page back in its original position on the gold foil and press firmly with the hand; lift carefully and the gold will adhere; use this the same as patent gold. The usual method followed for ordinary leaf is to place the leaf on a flat cushioned board, or gold leaf cushion, by means of a small spatula, and after carefully spreading the leaf, cut it to the desired sizes by means of the spatula before mentioned.

A brush about 3 inches wide, made from paste board and camel's hair, called a gilder's tip, is used to apply the leaf. By rubbing the brush through your hair you generate sufficient electricity, or take enough grease from the hair to pick up the gold with the brush and thus apply it to the sized surface. It should be carefully applied so as not to overlap unduly. When finished and dry, the work may be burnished by rubbing with a piece of silk velvet or some similar soft cloth. Do not attempt to burnish until the work is perfectly dry. When gold leaf is applied to glass, it is customary to give it a protective backing of paint or varnish.

The tools required, then, are a cushion, a four-inch spatula and a gilder's tip, the brush before described.

Besides the patent gold and ordinary gold leaf, of which two shades are generally procurable, there are a number of artificial gold leafs known as composition leaf, Dutch metal, etc. They tend to tarnish quickly on exposure and, hence, are but little used, at least in this country.

Silver leaf is also procurable, but aluminum leaf has largely replaced it, because it is cheaper, and for the same reason that aluminum bronze has replaced so-called silver bronzes. Even silver itself, quickly tarnishes while aluminum does not.