Talk:Gilding

Define term O/
a film of gold or an amalgam containing from 13 to 16 O/ of mercury What is meant by  16 O/ ? A quick search on Google yielded no clear answer.

Its a typo. It should read "%". I've corrected the article. - Cheviot

False claim about Act of Parliament
I deleted the unsupported phrase: I searched the UK government "UK Statute Law Database" (www.statutelaw.gov.uk) and failed to find such an Act of Parliament. Lightmouse 09:47, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
 * "there is an act of Parliament (1796), yet unrepealed, which prescribes 5 grains of gold as the smallest quantity that may be used for the gilding of 12 dozen of buttons 1 inch in diameter"

Typo
Gilding says, "... the gold is mixed with ~1th of its weight of bismuth oxide ...". What's a ~1th? Art LaPella (talk) 04:38, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Mechanical Gilding
The section on mechanical gilding seems incomplete. Should greater detail be added to cover topics such as gilding on bole, etc.? PlaysInPeoria (talk) 15:52, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Absolutely! Johnbod (talk) 17:06, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

1th
In this pulverulent state the gold is mixed with ~1th of its weight of bismuth oxide, Is this correct spelling “1th”? --Diwas (talk) 21:10, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Weird. It's been that way in the article for over a year now.  It's wrong in that even if it is some obscure notation style (for example, only understood by guilders), then it's no use to the casual reader.  If I were to guess, I'd say that it's supposed to mean "approximately one percent by weight of bismuth oxide", but without background knowledge or a decent source, I'm hesitant to make the change myself. -Verdatum (talk) 21:53, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Quite odd indeed. I've add a clarify template to the "term" because I too am at a loss as to what is meant. Hopefully someone else will see it and know how to correct. Wizard191 (talk) 13:51, 22 January 2010 (UTC)


 * It was a quotation from the public-domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, but it got copied over incorrectly. It should have read: "... the gold is mixed with 1/12th of its weight of bismuth oxide." Evidently, the transcriber was unable to get a case fraction. He could have just written "one-twelfth" and it would have been fine. That paragraph, however, no longer exists in the current Wikipedia article. — Objectivesea (talk) 19:48, 17 September 2017 (UTC)

Unusual, archaic how-to tone
Large sections of this article are simply lifted from a Google book, "A dictionary of mechanical science, arts, manufactures, and ..., Volume 1 By Alexander Jamieson". You can find by Googling complete sentences. Seems wrong to me: It's not copyright infringement, as any original copyright is long expired, and it's how-to rather than encyclopedic, and it seems plagiaristic to me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.234.224.9 (talk) 17:11, 6 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Which parts exactly are plagarized, because I checked a few different sentences and couldn't find any matches. Wizard191 (talk) 18:49, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Merge of gold leaf

 * oppose Why? What case has been presented as to why these two topics, a material and a technique, should be merged?  Andy Dingley (talk) 17:57, 2 October 2012 (UTC)


 * '"also oppose'" for much the same reason and found this looking for gold leaf, not gilding Donga Nick (talk) 04:02, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose' ;likewise. gold leaf has many other uses. Time to remove the proposal now. Johnbod (talk) 13:22, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

Link to Japanese Article
This page has a link to the Japanese page　めっき, which discusses metallic plating in general, not the specific area of gilding. I don't know how to change other language links, so I suggest that the link with the Japanese be changed so that it links to the Plating page instead. Athomeinkobe (talk) 12:55, 20 January 2013 (UTC)
 * If those are the best articles available at present, then it sounds like the link ought to stay as it is.
 * A link from plating (general) to gilding (a narrow, specific article0 is wrong, especially if a better target article exists for plating.
 * A link from gilding (specific) to plating (general, but gilding is still within scope) is OK, if that's the best available. It doesn't mean that the target article should link back to it! (This is rarely realised, and why many 'bot additions of commutative links are unhelpful.)   Andy Dingley (talk) 18:09, 20 January 2013 (UTC)
 * It looks like this comment has been fully addressed by removal of this link. I had a look at the めっき page in question, though, and it appears that it mentions actual gold gilding (镀金) in the body, but that link is a circular reference to the めっき page... so the plating page is, in fact, the best available. I'd add this link back but it looks like that entire cluster of language cross-links has since been removed. 96.41.225.223 (talk) 02:23, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

"flash gold"
I see this term thrown around everywhere, also in WP articles. My guess is, it should be explained here. --BjKa (talk) 09:40, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
 * It's electroplating rather than gilding. Flash gold is the thinnest possible coat of deposited gold that counts as a complete and visible plating layer – although it's too thin to last through any wear. It could be used for appearance (cheaply), corrosion protection or maybe as a base under something else. Andy Dingley (talk) 09:45, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Motivations for Gilding?
I feel that this article could use a section that briefly describes the basic motivations for gilding an object over constructing it with pure gold. (Ie. Pure gold is rarer and more costly, and it is softer and denser.) There is currently language to this effect in the specialized page Depletion gilding (last paragraph of Process as of this writing), which seems like the wrong place for it. However, in the history of this Gilding page I see that there have been spotty attempts to write a Motivation section that have promptly been deleted, so I'm hesitant to go about it, especially since I haven't been able to find an outside source. 96.41.225.223 (talk) 16:34, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Added a bit. Johnbod (talk) 00:25, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Are you referring to this revision? I'm not sure how that revision relates to this comment. 96.41.225.223 (talk) 02:19, 1 November 2018 (UTC)
 * On second inspection, my mistake, I see the paragraph you added. Thanks. 96.41.225.223 (talk) 00:54, 9 November 2018 (UTC)

Unclear first paragraph needs improvement
The first sentence indicates that gold only is used to gild something. Then two sentences later it goes on to say in the west and china silver and bronze are also used.

I thought gilding is the process of applying a thin layer of any precious metal (or at least not exclusive to gold) to some object? I think the first sentence should be rewritten explaining this if my assumption is correct.

I came here wanting to find out if 'silver gilt' is valid term. I still don't have a definitive answer to this after reading this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.200.7.71 (talk) 04:06, 15 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes it is. Gilding is only with gold, so your assumption is incorrect. Electroplating uses many metals. I've clarified but "in the west and china silver and bronze are also used" is talking about the metal underneath, not the coating. . Johnbod (talk) 21:39, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

melting gold coatings over wood, paper, etc.?
Under the heading "Processes: Mechanical", the final two sentences read "Sometimes, after either gold-leafing or gold-painting, the artist would heat the piece enough to melt the gold slightly, ensuring an even coat. These techniques remained the only alternatives for materials like wood, leather, the vellum pages of illuminated manuscripts, and gilt-edged stock. This is nonsensical. Gold's melting point is 1064.18 °C (1947.52 °F) which is far above the combustion temperature for wood or vellum, and above the temperature at which leather would char. In short: it would be impossible to "slightly melt" gold over these delicate materials without destroying them in the process. No citation is listed for this claim. It should either be properly sourced, or removed. Bricology (talk) 21:33, 30 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Softening slightly? Johnbod (talk) 21:37, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

Shortened headings
This edit removing the word gilding from sub-headings doesn't strike me as an improvement. I know we shouldn't unnecessarily repeat the article title, but this has left the headings sounding strange and stilted, especially as fire for instance would not be used in isolation in running text to describe the process. It would always be fire gilding. SpinningSpark 15:23, 21 October 2020 (UTC)