Gold leaf
Gold leaf is the name for a made of pure gold or high-profile alloy thin film. Used to refine to give non-metallic objects the look of real gold ( gold plating ) or noble metal objects will. In reflected light, gold leaf shines golden yellow, backlit by a white light source appears greenish- blue by.
Production
The pure gold or gold together with additives (platinum, silver, copper ) is melted and poured into 2-5 mm thick Zaine ( bars). The additives are responsible for the color of the gold leaf. The Zaine are then forged in a still red-hot condition and repeatedly annealed to preserve the smoothness of the gold. It is then rolled into a gold band of about the strength of newsprint (1/ 33 mm ) and cut into squares ( quarters ). 400 to 500 of these neighborhoods are superposed in a mangle between parchment paper and beaten with a hammer spring to about 1/1000 mm over again in several steps while rotating the so-called gold-beater. The leaves are used by the districts now in a gold-beater, between layers of a prepared ox appendix (so-called goldbeater ), dusted with fine fibrous gypsum, with increasingly heavy hammers in laborious hand work ever struck. The ground still appropriate fineness of approximately 80 by 80 (and also 60 to 120 ) mm wide gold leaves is then a nine -to ten- thousandths of a millimeter.
After the lined thickness the gold leaf is
An ounce of gold results in the usual thickness of a ten- thousandth of a millimeter (100 nanometers ) an area of about half a square meter. In Roman times the thickness was about three thousandths of a millimeter, in the 14th century one thousandth of a millimeter.
The German center of this craft is Schwabach. There the gold leaf making demonstrations in the city museum in a mock gold-beater workshop of a gold-beater champion.
Other forms
Other similar-looking gold alloys see sheet metal
Application Examples
Gold leaf is used mainly for gilding picture frames, books ( gold section), furniture, figures, architectural elements, stucco, icons, etc.. Gold leaf is this - applied with special adhesives and often then polished - depending on the purpose and desired effect. A distinction is made between the weatherproof oil gilding ( adhesive is the so-called Mixtion, a drying oil consisting of linseed oil, litharge and turpentine ), the Leimvergoldung ( adhesive: organic glue on gesso ) or gilding ( chalk base and offset with organic glue fine bolus, the can be an excellent polish with polishing stones on high gloss). In Buddhism, gold leaf is used for ritual sacrifices.
The consumption of gold leaf is safe and exemplified in Danziger Goldwasser, Schwabacher Goldwasser or flavored, wine-based drink (for example: gold blend with gold liqueur or Austria Gold Inführ of sparkling wine) to drink. 22 -carat gold leaf 175 is also used as a food colorant E Gold Gilding of food and serves Körperbemalern applying makeup and cosmetics in general to special effects.
In Atlanta gold leaf was even used to decorate the top of a skyscraper. The completed in 1993 Bank of America Plaza has a gold leaf spire. The building is 317 meters high.