Posted by Larry White on March 23, 2004
Kent SmithThere was a recent thread on this BB regarding the types of gold leaf available. This descriptive list came off Bruce Jackson's website.
23ct The standard and most widely available gold
24ct is uncommon and usually reserved for exterior work where the absolute maximum life is required. It is more expensive than 23 ct, mainly due to manufacturing costs rather than the value of gold.
Red (23.5ct) has copper added for a beautiful warm color.
22ct is just slightly cheaper but the colour is generally like 23ct, perhaps just a little lighter if compared side by side.
Platinora Up to 23.75 carat. Gold alloyed with platinum, the color is slightly lighter than standard 23 carat
Moongold (20 - 23.75 carat) is alloyed with palladium and is a light brown/grey color similar to platinum.
18ct is a pale green/yellow combination of gold with silver and called either green or lemon gold. The gold/silver alloys were formerly known as Electrum
16ct is usually paler again and shares the names of green, lemon or pale lemon.
12ct is white gold (half gold/half silver) and is very pale. Still slightly yellow when compared with silver. It is the easier to work and preferred to the other white metals for this reason. Tarnishing isn't usually a problem but palladium can be substituted where this is an issue.
Silver is a clean cold light color, virtually a mirror when water gilded. It is thicker and harder to clean up than the gold alloys. Not used with oil gilding as it tarnishes to a brown.
Palladium is similar to silver in appearance. It is slightly darker than silver or 12ct but it doesn't tarnish.
Platinum is darker again than other white metals with a distinctly warm reddish tone. One of my favourites for its color but it's not easy to work with and is very hard to get.
Copper is a great color but very robust and almost impossible to clean up when water gilded. As a backing metal for glaze painting its color is fantastic. It comes in larger size leaves of around 140mm square as do the following common metals
Schlag (imitation or Dutch gold) is a brass with good golden color but like copper it is difficult to water gild and is not generally useful in glass work except perhaps as an oil gilded backing for large areas.
Variegated leaf comes several color types but all are based on either schlag or copper and are basically similar in their characteristics. The metal is heat treated to develop interference colors. They can be gaudy in large areas but have their uses. Very good as an interesting background when toned down with a glaze or antiquing finish
Aluminium has a cold milky blue tone and also may have manufacturing markings which mar its appearance. Best used as a non-tarnishing white metal background to a glazed treatment.
My preference is Rosa Noble 23.75K which has a warm rose contrast and is alloyed for less tarnish seen in the 23K copper/silver alloy and it has a neat name. Depending upon the manufacturer, there are literally 100's of alloys, each with a different name, sometimes for the same or similar alloy. It is impossible to have a complete list as some of the combinations are not often done. Bruce's list sounds like an old August Ruhl one. Sepp and NEI have good lists too.
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