Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

is used for laying gold and silver leaf whilst
badger is only suitable for leaf and foil made
from lesser metals, which are usually heavier
and thicker than gold leaf. Old tips can be cut
up to make smaller ones that are useful for
gilding into deep or awkward areas of carving.
Tips for laying whole leaves of gold can be
made by gluing one tip behind another to
create a longer hair surface. A cork can then
be adhered to the upper surface. To prevent
the hairs from shedding from new tips, a very
fine line of shellac polish can be applied to
the edge of both sides where the hair meets
the cardboard. Tips may be cleaned by placing
them on a clean flat surface and combing
through the hair with chalk on a stiff brush or
a ball of cotton wool soaked in methylated
spirits (denatured ethanol).
Gesso hooks are used to recut and engrave
the gesso before the application of bole and
water gilding (see section 14.2.11). They are
made of hardened steel that is bent, profiled
and sharpened at one end with a handle
attached to the other. Gesso hooks were
extensively used in France, where recutting
became highly developed during the
eighteenth century. The best quality and
widest range of gesso hooks are still found in
France. Gesso hooks are sharpened in a
similar manner to carving tools, but as the
cutting bevel is used to scrape rather than cut
it is ground at a less acute angle, usually
between 10 and 15 degrees. Gesso hooks are
used by drawing the tool into the gesso,
towards the recutter (see Figure 14.7). English
and American carvers and gilders commonly
used ordinary carving tools for recutting, often
reserving a simple set for working ‘in the
white’.
Metal punches may be used for stamping
decoration into the finished water gilded
surface. Punches may be purchased in a
variety of designs but it is usually necessary
to custom-make one’s own if an original
punched surface is being matched. Ring
punches and double ring punches may be
made on an engineer’s lathe but designs such
as stars and pin groups are usually shaped
using a grinder, needle files, a graver or burin.
The cutting edge of punches are polished, as
they lack cutting edges. This gives a burnish
in the indented punched pattern without
cutting the gold.
Introduction to traditional gilding 645
Burnishers are used for polishing water
gilding to a high lustre, sometimes known as
burnish gilding, and come in many different
shapes. A selection of profiles may be required
by a gilder but one of the more useful shapes
is the hockey-stick or dog’s-tooth type (see
Figure 14.18). Highly polished agate (silicon
dioxide) stones attached to a wooden handle
are most commonly used to make modern
burnishers as they are hard wearing and can
be repolished several times. Other stones that
may be utilized in this way include flint, black
flint (both types of silicon dioxide) and
hematite. Hematite is an iron oxide and is
softer than agate. Cennini recommended
‘sapphires, emeralds, balas rubies, topazes,
rubies and garnets or the tooth of any flesheating
animal’. Burnishing stones should be
treated with care and stored in a soft cloth
cover, such as a tool roll or the cut off fingers
of cotton gloves. Any scratches in the stone
will damage the gold when attempting to
burnish it. Professional repolishing will
produce the best burnishing surface.
Round stringed hog-hair brushes are often
used for applying the protein size coat, yellow
ochre or clay and in most cases the gesso.
Two types are available – long-haired brushes,
most often used and supplied in England and
Italy, and the short-haired type used in France.
Gilding mops are round with domed heads,
made from squirrel hair. Many different sizes
of both types of brushes are available. Their
primary use is applying the gilding water as
they hold the liquid well and distribute it
evenly onto the clay bole. In oil gilding, large
mops may be used to brush lightly over the
surface in order to press the gold gently onto
the oil size. Squirrel dabbers or sable tampers
are used to press down on the gold once it
has been laid in order to remove any air
bubbles. Traditionally the soft, supple hairs are
cut to a flat tip and are attached to a quill,
which can be placed over the end of a gilding
mop. Chisel-ended sable writer’s brushes may
also be used for this purpose. Dabbers and
tampers can be purchased individually or as a
set and range in size from ‘lark’ to ‘swan’,
names that derive from the birds that historically
supplied the quills. These brushes must
be kept clean and dry. They may be washed
with very mild soap and water and brushed
out so that they dry straight. Sable brushes are