Glass gild texture

[Robert Schwieger]

This may seem unimportant however I would like to know the reason for glass gild which shows a very fine "texture" appearance in the gold. This occurs on occasion after the second gild (patching) has dried and a final "wash" with boiled water. The second gild brightens the gild nicely however after patching (with this application) the patch areas are not as bright as the first gild, thus the need for a third "wash" to brighten the second patch-gild and to match the first gild. The resulting gild while very bright has this slight (but noticeable) crackle/texture. This does not affect the adhesion as the gild holds up very well so it is not a blister. I am assuming that this is due to the "wash" removing the remaining gelatin. How can one avoid this nuisance appearance? No clients are bothered by this, but I know that this is annoying to all of us who strive for a notch above "OK". Old timers referred to a final wash with a bit of chloroform added to it for the final step and some even advocated some wine added to the final step. I haven't tried these. Maybe they work. Your input,, as usual, is appreciated. Bob

[Billy Pickett]

...Robert, (for glass gilding) I have never needed a "final wash" of anything. Water, wine, beer, booze or saliva. I know Ray Lablanc (in his book) says he uses boiling water. ...Perhaps you have a poor batch of (water and gelatin) size, either too weak of contaminated w. something. I use Monarch glass gold, and typically get a swell, high burnish w. the first gild. ... I also am using the sheet gelatin that Rick used to sell...

[Kent Smith]

I would think that what you are seeing is either contamination from old gelatin which is under dissolved, minerals in water (use steam distilled to avoid) or texture in the gold. The latter is found more often from the final beating with a cutch that is well-worn. Buy better quality gold to avoid this like Monarch or W&B. The second gild usually is enough or even a final wash is ok to even out the gelatin. The hot wash has for me always been for the tough ones where you patch a lot and need to eliminate the heavy build up of gelatin. The sheet gel seems to alleviate this problem over capsules. The addition of chloroform or alcohol was to help the hot wash flash off faster so it would not wash all the gold off the glass. Truth is a hot wash needs to rewet to the glass level and will flash off fast enough anyway.

[Robert Schwieger]

Thanks for the input. I have always used Manetti 23K, fresh distilled water and gelatin sheets from Letterheads (the sheets stored in air tight bag). The problem appears to be after the second gild but not uniformly on the glass. The second gild brightens nicely but the patch areas do not match the brightness of the first gild and this suggested the third or final wash. I will try again and see if I can trace the problem to the final wash. Previously I have used a hair dryer to hasten the final wash thinking that this would prevent lifting the earlier gild but apparently this does NOT allow the wash to penetrate to the glass. Does this sound right? Although this hasn't been a huge problem I will continue to explore this knowing that my old-timer mentor frequently said that only another gold leaf person will know the difference. I am curious to how I might avoid this in the future. Your assistance is, as usual, greatly appreciated. Bob