The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1905-05-13
Art of Gold Beating
F.om Youths Companion.

The art of the gold beater is one Of the
oldest handicrafts in the world and among
those which have changed least Much
of the declaration of Solomon S temple is
believed to have been covered with gold
leaf, hammered to the requisite thinness by
hand, as it is today
The gold beater receives his material not
in the form of the sixty pennyweight ingot
in which it is cast, but in the form of
ribbon about an inch wide and twenty four
feet long.
This ribbon is first cut into 200 squares
and placed in the ''cutch, which is pile
of square pieces of peculiar paper, part
animal and part vegetable in composition,
the preparation of which is a secret. The
best clutches are madein London A square
of gold is placed between each two leaves
and the whole mass is ready for the first
beating.
This is done with an iron hammer weigh
iug from twelve 10 seventeen pounds, while
the cutch rests.upen granite block which
is supported by heavy wooded post.
Under the heavy, measured blows of the
hammer the sheets of gold begin to stretch
or expand until in half or three quarters of
an houi they have reached the edges of
the eutch. They are then removed and
with thin strip of bamboo are cut into
quarters, so that the 200 pieces become
500 Next comes the ''shoder, COL
lection Of 500 pieces of skin, four inches
square, made from the intestines of cattle.
As in the cutch, each piece of gold is placed
between two leaves of skin, and bands of
parchment or vellum are slipped over the
whole pile to keep it together
Another beating, this time with ham
mer weighing from eight to ten pounds,
now follows. This takes about an hour,
during which the sheets of gold are all the
time expanding.
The last stage is the mold, which,
like the cutch and the shoder, is composed
of alternate leaves of gold and skin, but
the mold is about inches square and made
mp of gold beater' skin The preparation
OF this Is jealously guarded trade secret.
The skin, like that in the shoder, is
made from the intesiines Of the OK. 1t is
translucent and not unlike rawhide in color.
Although it will stand continuous beating
without breaking. 1t viii tear ike sheet
of thin paper The making of single
mold requires the intestines of 500 bulocks.
Between each two beatings the skin is
rubbed with baked aud pulverized gypsum.
A mold contains 900 sheets. After
the secunj beating the workman takes from
the shOder single leaf of gold at time,
handling it with bamboo pinchers and,
when necessary, smoothing it with a rab-
bit foot. With the strip of bamboo he
cuts each sheet into quarters again, so that
the original 200 have now become 3, 200.
One shoder, therefore, contains more than
enough gold to till three molds.
The final beating in the mold is done
with seven pound hammer and requires
from three to four hours BY this time
the gold leaf should have expanded again
to the edge of the skins and should be of
the requisite thinness, which is determined
by holding it up to the light If it trans
mits green rays it is done and will measure
about one two-hundred- and eighty thou
sandth Of an inch in thickness
The hammers used in beating geld are
slightly convex on the face The art of
the workman consists in so striking that
the gold will always be thinest in the center.
He must pound with evenneSs all over the
square in order that the sheets Of gold may
expand without losing their form, but at
the same time he must keep the thickest
part near the edges, 80 that when the
sheets are finally trimmed to size the thicker
portions may fall in the waste, to be recast.
No machinery has ever been devised which
viii do this successfully.
The tools Of the craft are interesting and
peculiar The rabbit foot is exceedingly
soft and just oily enough to prevent the
gold from sticking, and the bamboo pliers
and cutting slips are the only things with
which it is possible to do this delicate work.
The gold does not adhere TO the fibers Of
the reed as it does to steel.
The gold beater performs all his work
standing. The use of the heavy hammers
in such continuous pounding would, one
would think, impose an almost intolerable
strain upon the hands and arms. The men
say, however, that their arms never ache
The only place where lit catches them
is in the bend Of the knee.
The lack Of strain upon the arms is ac-
counted for by the fact that the hammer
rebounds II is an astonishing but by no
means rare thing to see gold beater
change hands while the hammer is in the
air and without losing a stroke