Gilding Incised Letters in Granite

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OLD FORUM POSTS

Posted by Sarah King on February 20, 2004

Has anyone tried Angel Gidling incised letters on a granite stone? Basically I think you would be Angel Gilding the sealer because unpolished granite sure is pourous so the question is - what kind of sealer would you use?

Mike Jackson

I believe you'd want to leave your angel gild kit at home and grab your surface gild supplies. There was a chapter in the old LeBlanc book of Gold Leaf Techniques. I don't remember if it is still in the newer ones or not, but I remember the parakeet cuttle bone being used to remove excess leaf that might have been stuck around the edges. I think you could use block out white, XIM clear or XIM white. Also, Sherwin Williams used to make "Traffic Marking White", used to stripe asphalt parking lots. It gripped well to rock and stone and covered well. Monte Jumper and I used it on a big wall in Bricktown a long time ago, but I don't know if it is still available.

Good luck,
Mike Jackson

David M. Harding

Finally, a topic where I can be of help! Our main line of work is sandblasted Granite signs, which we have been doing for about a dozen years. We gild most of them.

After blasting, we leave the mask on until we are finished sizing. We prime with white shellac, available for about $15 per gallon at Home Depot. When that is dry, we size with LeFranc on one day and start gilding the following day or the day after. A couple hours after sizing, I will go back with a fitch and rake pooled size out of the depressions in the blasted areas and generally rebrush the sized areas to make the coat more uniform. This helps keep the leaf from drowning. After that, I strip the mask. We lay loose Gold into the sized letters and push it into the size with makeup brushes. We also burnish with the brushes. The skewings of Gold that break off end up filling in the holidays. A razor blade and cuttlebone clean up the excess Gold and size around the letters, a blast of compressed air clears the chalky cuttlebone dust and you have a sign that will be stunning a decade later.

Jon Harl

I'd like to 2nd white shellac that Mr. Harding recommended as the primer. Rick advised us at Pierce Signs to use shellac as the primer on our gilded graniet signwork. He said it seals the stone and protects the gild from moisture coming from the stone. We used Zinsser (sp) brand that we got at OSH.
Good Luck,
Jon

Kent Smith

You can also use two coats of your favorite gold size although it drys a lot slower than shellac. I prefer a heavier shellac such as orange and at a 4 lb. cut instead of the lighter, 3 lb. bleached variety. The first coat of size soaks in and seals quite nicely and you can resize once it passes tack. When you do your own blasting, keeping the mask on is the obvious answer for better brushing out the size. You can still clean up after gilding with a blade and cuttle bone when the mask is not present. Loose leaf is absolutely the best since you can work it into the cut and the texture. Angel gilding would be a waste since much of it would stick to the polished surface and not in the graphics, even with a good sealer.