The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-07-21

One of the Oldest Handicrafts in the
World.

- WOAA4- -r
The art of the gold beaten is one of
the oldest handicrafts in the world
and among those which nave changed
least. Much of the decoration of Solo
mon s temple is believed to have been
covered with gold leaf, hammered to
the requisite thinness by hand, as it
is today.
The gold heater receives his material
not in the form of the sixty penny
weight ingot in which it is east, but
in the form of a ribbon about an inch
wide and t~wenty-four feet long.
This ribbon is first cut into 200
squares and placed in the "cutch,"
which is a pile of square pieces of a
peculiar paper, part animal and part
vegetable in composition, the prepara-
tion of which is a secret. The best
clutches are made in London. A squa e
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
weighing from twelve to seventeen
pounds, while the cutch rests upon a
granite block which is supported by a
heavy wooden 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 hour they have
reached the edges of the clutch. They
are then removed and with a thin
strip of bamboo are cut into quarters,
so that the 200 pieces become gro.
Next comes the "shoder,' a collection
of 800 pieces of skin, four inches
square, made from the intestines of
cattle. AS in the clutch, each piece
of gold is placed between two leaves
of skin, and bands of parchment or
vellum are slipped ove the whole pile
to keep it together.
Another beating, this time with a
hammer 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 clutch and the shoder, is COM
posed of alternate leaves of gold and
skin, but the mold is about FIVE inches
square and made up of gold beater's
skin. The preparation of this is a jeal-
ously guarded trade secret.
The skin, like that in the shoder, is
made from the intestines of the OK. 1t
is translucent and not unlike rawhide
in color. Although it will stand con-
t~inuous beating without breaking, it
will tear like a sheet of thin pcper.
The making of a single mold requires
the intestines of 500 bullocks: Between
each two beatings the skin is rubbed
with baked and pulverized gypsum.
A mold contains 1000 sheets. After
the second beating the workman takes
from the shoder a single leaf of gold at
a time, handling it with bamboo pinch
ers and, when necessary, smoothing
it with a rabbit foot. With the strip
of bamboo he cuts each sheet into quar-
tiers again, 50 that the original 200
have now became 5000. One shoder,
therefore, contains more than enough
gold to fill three molds.
The final beating of the mold is done
with a seven pound hammer and re-
quires from three to four hours. By
this time the gold leaf should have ex-
banded 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 transmits green rays
it is lone and will measure about one
two-hundred-a and -eighty-thousandths Of
an incl in thickness.
The hammers used in beating gold
are slightly onvex on the face. The
art of the workman consists in so strik-
ing that the gold will always he thin
nest in the center. He must pound
with evenness all over the square in
order that the sheets of gold may ex-
pand without losing their form, but at
the same time he must keep the thick
est part near the edges, so that when
the sheets are finally trimmed to size
the thicker portions may fall in the
waste, to be recast. No machinery has
eve been devised which viii do this
successfully.
The tools of the craft are interesting
and peculiar. The rabbits foot is ex-
ceedingly soft and just oily enough to
prevent the gold from sticking, and
the bamboo pliers and cutting slips
arc the only things with which it is
to do this delicate work. The
gold does not adhere to the fbers of
the reed as it does to steel.
Tho U0I6 heater narformS oil his