Enjoy my whistling breathing lmao. Recorded a portion of when I am polishing a gilded frame using an Agate polishing tool. The gold leaf is 23,75 karat from Noris Blattgold.
In all my 6 years of gilding I’ve been holding myself back.. doing only pieces that I can cover with one sheet of leaf.. i even went and spent the ridiculous amount on the lipstick polisher (agate and dogtooth) as well but to think if I would have just had a bit more patience lol thank you so much.. I can’t wait to try this on bigger pieces where can I lay 3 to 4 sheets of leaf down.
For hundreds of years European craftsmen used only a dog's tooth before agate in the same shape generally replaced it. But dog's tooth still works perfectly and free from your vet! Attach it to a wooden handle with epoxy
Glad I watched this video. Wouldn't have thought of doing polishing at all. With kids in the house, maybe a layer of spray varnish could be applied? Hoping that it wouldn't affect the shine.
if you are using real *actual* gold I wouldnt use varnish. You'd just ruin the shine of the gold. if its imitation leaf gold then its less of a deal. You should not do water gilding with other people in the room, since dust and air flow can make the application harder.
@@Foervraengd aw, it's the real gold :( Was just hoping to give it an extra protection from those sticky fingers lol. Gotcha though, won't varnish and will be careful about dust. Tnx!
I have one from an old gilder that is a real tooth. Very large canine tooth on a handle.I just cleaned it up and polished the tooth again and still use it often. Better than any other I have. I had a few others but they got lost over the years.
I am building a model of the Yamato Battleship and would like to gold leaf a tiny 5mm diameter rendition of a chrysanthemum flower that is located on its bow, its got a lot of fine detail, would gold leaf be able to be burnished smoothly enough into its contours to look good? or would i be better off with paint? Thanks!
it depends on the method you use. If you're gonna do water gilding, which is what I'm doing in the video, then it's gonna be possible but take a lot of time since the foundation requires a lot of work. watergilding makes a shiny look when burnished and the priming foundation consists of several layers which over time will cover some small details in the ornament, especially if its small in size. However the easiest version is to do oil gilding, the result will be a bit more matte but you will keep a lot of small fine details, it's also faster and less expensive.
What is the best oil gilding technique to be able to polish to a shiny finish as close as possible to water gilding? One book said that the long open 12 to 24 hour oil based gold size gives the best finish. Is this true and would it still be possible to polish it with a dog tooth. Water based gold size is more convenient but I am uncertain whether it will produce as good a gold finish as oil based gold size. This is all for interior work.
Next time I might try to record a bit more, traditional gilding takes time to do since it involves a lot of drying-time between the steps. I'll record when I can but I have to prioritize my job and my clients first. I recently got a new phone with more storage so maybe I will be able to record longer clips. :)
if you mean imitation gold leaf thats made out of brass then sort of, you cant polish it with this technique since it would make more cracks and openings. Also it cant reach the same high level of shine.
If you mean gold leafs then yes, you can use it to create your own mirror using water with a very very very tiny amount of dissolved gelatine to cover the glass surface and then carefully apply the sheets. Carefully soak up excess water with a towel and then let the rest evaporate on its own.
Yes as far as I know you can only burnish it like in the video with genuine gold leaf (9karat or higher), its the softness of the gold that makes the burnishing method possible to do. Imitation leaf is just brass, its better to use a soft piece of cotton for polishing imitation gold leaves.
this is water gilding, so when you have applied the gold leaf you should wait til it is no longer damp. you can do this by gently tapping the surface with the agate tool. Depending on how much ethanol you mixed with the water, the drying will be faster or slower. but you dont want to wait til the surface is 100% dry. So I would not let it sit overnight. to me it usually doesnt take more than an hour before I can burnish it.
@@inthewind3976 Agate can be polished to very smooth durable finish. Some people prefer genuine hematite instead....I suppose other similar stones can be made into burnishing tools. I don't know if there is some property that agate possesses that interacts with the gold during the burnishing that makes it better than other stones....but it does seem to be preferred. In the middle ages they used the canine teeth of dogs and wolves to burnish gold....which is why you see the shape of the burnisher in the video...if the shape works why change it...I guess.
Tyy Daymon it’s just pure agate. No chemicals. No wax. After burnishing you coat gold leaf with hard lacquer which would have issues sticking if you used wax.
Ok …so how is this being done? What tools are you using? How much pressure do you apply? How long do you wait after laying gold leaf to polish? I came here for a how to…not watch the most boring process. 🤬🤬
I know. So annoying the way people make vids. All I want to know is what's the f'n process. Do I glue the sheet on, wait, and then just polish it. Or do I glue a sheet, wait, then lay another sheet down and polish. That crackled surface bullshit looks like crap, to be honest. I understand that you might have to poly the wood to get it smoother first, but still. Would be nice if One single person could make a quality video.
