Leafing a Letter

I have seen many excellent examples of gold-leafed parts cut on a CNC and always marvelled at just how brilliant a finish it produces. I had a chance several years ago to try this myself and always thought it would be interesting to try and become at least proficient with it, especially as I have some ideas for some project on which I could use it. So with that in mind I ordered some supplies and took a prism shaped letter “G” I had cut and decided to have some practice.

In reality I did not do a great job of carving the “G”, the main mistake being to use the plywood that was handy at the time we machined it. As such it needed a bit of filler and some sanding. Once it was sort of smooth I apply several coats of shellac and sanded to prepare it for the leafing. I was originally going to gold-leaf it so sprayed it with gold paint to act as cover if I left any gaps. However once I had already sprayed it I decided as it was for practice to use silver leaf instead as its cheaper.

I had read a bit about the process before I started and tried to recall my previous short practice, so I painted on the “size” (the glue for the leaf to stick to) an appropriate amount of time before I wanted to apply the leaf, in the case of the size I have that is 2-3 hours. Then I assembled all the equipment and set to work. If you have never done this its impossible to explain how fine the metal leaves are, you certainly need to be careful which direction you breath and stay out of draughts. I struggled with picking up the metal with the application brush and need to work on some techniques for next time with that. I understand static electricity is the key or a little petroleum jelly on your arm to help it stick to the brush. Regardless I pushed on and managed to cover the letter in silver (probably a lot more than it should have taken), there were some unsightly folded pieces and a few bare areas but overall I was happy with the results as a first practice and I learned a lot.

Next time I will pick more appropriate material for the letter carving to cut down on prep time and research better techniques to pick up the leaf which should make it easier to lay smoothly!