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Glass problem(s)

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Robert Schwieger
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2007 12:38 pm
Location: Nebraska

Glass problem(s)

Post by Robert Schwieger »

Hello. Never had this problem when doing gold work on glass. 1) Patching step, size beads away from initial gild. 2) Gilding knife cuts cleanly but gold adheres to knife. Patching size was thinned very slightly. Knife is frequently cleaned (maybe static attracting the gold to knife?)

Thanks for your wisdom.
Alex Sheldon
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:49 am
Location: Detroit, MI
Contact:

Re: Glass problem(s)

Post by Alex Sheldon »

Have you tried adding a couple drops of detergent to your size to help the beading issue? I keep a little bottle of detergent in my kit for this purpose. I have a 2oz travel size squeeze bottle that I picked up from Walgreens that is filled with clear dishwashing detergent (Dawn free and clear).

As for the knife, I've had similar issues. I'm assuming this was trace amounts of moisture or oil. I clean mine with denatured alcohol now and have had better results.
Alex Sheldon
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:49 am
Location: Detroit, MI
Contact:

Re: Glass problem(s)

Post by Alex Sheldon »

I came across a tip in an older gilders book that recommended wiping the blade of the knife between an empty page in your gilders book.

I gave it a try and it works great and is much faster than stopping to clean the knife with alcohol and cotton when encountering this issue.

The knife picks up the trace amounts of rouge which remedy any trace amounts of moisture or oil which gold would cling to. I give a few passes on each side and run the back edge of the blade over the rouged paper and have had zero issues with this now.
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