thinner. Japanners' gold size may be thinned with a little turpentine if both are heated to boiling point together.
Oil gilding should always be well washed down with clean water and a soft sponge, and then sized with clean gelatine size, this washing hardens the oil, and the size protects and preserves the gold and gives it a more uniform luster, in place of the broken metallic brilliance it has as the result of its beating. Before washing, it should be carefully pressed down with cotton wool, all faults made good, and the whole dusted off with cotton wool or a camel-hair dabber.
In gilding enriched and molded surfaces, the gold will sometimes require double laying, in order to reach the interstices of the work.
All waste gold, known as skew, should be saved and used for dusting into the carved portions, and when these are dusted out, the skew should be carefully collected in a tin canister for future use, or for disposal to the dealer in old gold and silver.
Burnish and Matt Gilding. Burnish and matt gilding are much alike in method of procedure. They are principally used for enriched ornament, cornices, and picture frames. The work is brought up to a good surface in size and whiting, and then coated with five or six coats of the matt size or burnish size, as the case requires, each coat being rubbed down with very fine glass paper, and the size laid on with a camel-hair brush and allowed to dry thoroughly between each coat. When the ground has a sufficient number of coats to be perfectly solid, the gold is laid with water only. The size is well wetted with water in a camel-hair brush, and the gold laid on the water, which, as it dries, carries the gold on to the size coat and fixes it there. The leaf must be laid immediately following the water while it is yet live, to accomplish this quickly, the expert gilder uses the water brush with his right hand by clenching it with the two little fingers in his fist at the same time as he has the gold
