New plate glass

[John Lennig]

Hello! In a couple of days, i am doing a glass gilding job on new plate glass. The glass won't be installed at the time, but leaning against a wall in the new store. It's 7 and 1/4" caps block letters 5 letters, done twice.

12k White gold, burnished letter only, no outline or shade, with varhish protective after.

Concerns: New plate glass, i remember in dim past, warnings about special cleaning?

Plus, reading Gold Leaf Book (pg. 15 in 4th editiion), use of a mineral light (a short wave fluorescent light) (saw one in use at Purcell's Meet last year) the book makes it clear it's important factor to get the "right side" to gild on. ANY IDEAS where to get on of these lights, or... would it go by another name, and do the Job?

One more thing, i did a test yesterday, gild, second gild, back up, found obvious lap lines with the leaf. I did a hot wash after second gild was burnished, it's pretty clear, but you can see the lines...?

Any advice appreciated, this is a special job for me, details after i complete it well! cause i want this vs. this

John

[Danny Baronian]

John,

the mineral light is used primarily in angel gilding, even then some use it and some don't . No need for the light when using leaf.

If angel gilding Sarah carries the lights:

http://www.angelgilding.com/index.asp

No special concerns regarding new glass other than cleaning well w/ bon ami or whiting and ammonia. A search on the forum will provide more information.

Don't know about the lines. The laps should be undetectable. One cause could be from using tap water or old gelatin.

[Sarah King]

Yes, we do have mineral lights - they just haven't been posted on the website yet. John, please phone or e-mail me if you want one. They're mostly used for Angel Gilding but I think I remember that they were mentioned with regard to acid etching on the the Engliish web site that Doug refered to.

Thanks for the reference, Danny.

[John Studden]

John, The glass should just be cleaned 3 times with bon-ami, that is usually good enough. Are you using gelatin diamonds, sometimes white golds need stronger size. Burnish relly well after the first gild, white gold is stronger & will take more rubbing, make sure you get rid of all the veins of the first gild. After the second gild there may still be some overlap lines, but depending on the width of the finished bright lines this should not be noticeable from a normal viewing distance. Maybe the size is too strong? John

[John Lennig]

Thanks for the replies. The job went well, cleaned the glass 4 times w/ bon ami.

This was an especially important job for me, as is was thru H.M. Witt Signs out of Chicago. Any Sign Co. that's been arounds for 111 years...well, i felt very duty-bound to do it Right! I'm glad it's in "past tense" now, as i'm past being tense!

btw, it was for a C O A C H store here.

John