In this department we give processes for gilding and silvering wood, metals, paper, and glass; together with a number of receipts for coating various metals with other metallic deposits.

3557. Implements for Gilding on Wood

3557.     Implements for Gilding on Wood. A sufficient quantity of leaf-gold, which is of two sorts - deep gold, and pale, or lemon gold. The former is the best; the latter very useful, and may occasionally be introduced for variety or effect.

A gilder's cushion; an oblong piece of wood, covered with rough calf-skin, stuffed with flannel several times doubled, with a border of parchment, about 4 inches deep at one end, to prevent the air blowing the leaves about when placed on the cushion.

A gilding knife, with a straight and very smooth edge, sharp enough to cut the gold, but not sufficiently so to cut the cushion. It must be perfectly clean, or the gold leaf will adhere to it.

Several camel's-hair pencils of assorted sizes; and tips, made of a few long camel's hairs put between two cards, in the same manner as hairs are put into tin cases for brushes, thus making a flat brush with a very few hairs.

A burnisher, which is a crooked piece of agate set in a long wooden handle.

3558. Burnished Gilding

3558.    Burnished Gilding. This style of gilding is adapted for fine work, such as picture frames and other fancy furniture. "We shall endeavor to give the necessary instructions, in the following receipts, to those who wish to undertake this kind of work, and with care and practice they may perform the operation successfully.

3559. To Make Size for Preparing Picture Frames and Other Wood Work for Gilding

3559.    To Make Size for Preparing Picture Frames and Other Wood Work for Gilding. To 1/2 pound parchment shavings, or cuttings of white leather, add 3 quarts water, and boil it in a proper vessel till reduced to nearly half the quantity; then take it off the fire, and strain it through a sieve. Be careful, in the boiling, to keep it well stirred, and do not let it burn.

3560. To Prepare or Whiten Picture Frames or Wood Work

3560.    To Prepare or Whiten Picture Frames or Wood Work. First, with the above size alone, and boiling-hot, go over the frames in every part: then mix a sufficient quantity of whiting with size, to the consistency of thick cream, with which go over every part of the frame 6 or 7 times, carefully letting each coat dry before proceeding with the next; this will produce a white ground, nearly or quite 1/16 inch in thickness. The size must not be too thick, and, when mixed with the whiting, should not be put on as hot as the first coat is by itself. It will be better to separate the dirty or coarse parts of the whiting by straining it through a sieve.

3561. To Clean and Polish Frames

3561.    To Clean and Polish Frames. "When the prepared frames are quite dry, clean and polish them. To do this, wet a small piece at a time, and, with a smooth, fine piece of cloth, dipped in water, rub the part till all the inequalities are removed, and for those parts where the fingers will not enter, as the mouldings, etc., wind the wet cloth round a piece of wood, and by this means make the surface all equally smooth and even. "Where there is carved work, etc., it will sometimes be necessary to bring the mouldings to their original sharpness by means of chisels, gouges, etc., as the preparation will be apt to fill up all the finer parts of the work, which must be thus restored. It is sometimes the practice, after polishing, to go over the work once with fine yellow or Roman ochre.