The Palatka news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1905-05-05
ART OF GOLD BEATING
ONE OF THE OLDEST HANDlCRkFTS
IN THE WORLD.

The Way "a Little Square of the Yell
low Metal Is Expanded Into a
Large and Almost Transparent
Leaf by the Artisans Hammers.
The art of the gold beaten is one of
the Oldest handicrafts In the world
and among those which have changed
least Much of the decoration of Solo
mons temple is believed to have been
covered with gold leaf, hammered to
the requisite thinness by hand, as 1t
Is today.
The gold beaten receives his material
not in the form of the sixty penny
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 a
peculiar paper, part animal and part
vegetable in composition, the prepare
ton of which is secret The best
clutches are made In London. A square
of gold is placed between each two
leaves and the whole mass is ready
for the first beating.
This in done with an iron hammer
weighing from twelve to seventeen
pounds, while the clutch rests upon a
granite block which is supported by
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 thin
strip of bamboo are cut into quarters,
so that the 200 pieces become 800.
Next comes the "shoder," 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 over the whole pile
to keep it together
Another beating, this time with a
hammer weighing from eight to ten
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 beaters
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 rawhlde
In color. Although 1t will stand con-
tinuous beating without breaking, 1t
will tear like sheet Of thin paper.
The making of 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 single leaf OF gold at
a time, handling 1t with bamboo pinch
ers and, when necessary, smoothing
with rabbits foot. With the strip
Of bamboo he cuts each sheet into quar-
tiers again, 80 that the original 200
have now become 5000. One shoder,
therefore, contains more than enough
gold to fill three molds.
The final beating in the mold is done
witt seven pound hammer and re-
Quires from three to four hours. By
this time the gold leaf should have ex-
panded again to the edge Of the skins
and should be of the requisite thinness.
which is determined by holding 1t up
to the light If 1t transmits green rays
it is done and viii measure about one
Northumberland eighty- thousandth OF
an inch in thickness
The hammers used In beating gold
are slightly convex on the face. The
art Of the workman consists In so strIk-
ing that the gold will always be 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
ever been devised which will do this
successfully.