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What does a person do with gold leaf skewings. I have a huge drawer packed with the stuff, mostly stuck to patent sheets. Little pieces here and there.
Jane, the jewelry expert, claims it wouldn't amount to much, but the woman can't know everything, can she? There must be several thousand sheets. I thought about burning and straining it until just the gold was left.
Any ideas?
-------------------- Bill Diaz Diaz Sign Art Pontiac IL www.diazsignart.com Posts: 2107 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Dec 2001
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....expensive purse sized Kleenexes? Just staple em together for a tear-off pack!
I have heard that people throw their skewings in a box (minus the paper) and size Gemini letters or small ornaments, toss 'em in the box, and use the Shake-N-Bake method of gilding.
Could you sell them in bulk to the company that makes Goldschlagger? (sp?)
Love....Jill
Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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Actually, Bill, it does add up, especially since the gold market went up in the last few weeks. I've got a coffee can about half filled with the stuff. Since you have gold still on the sheets, I might take a sheet to a jeweler to see how he thinks the best way to reclaim the leftovers would be, and at what temperature it smelts at. You never know...an ounce is still money in your pocket!
And Jill - I love the shake and bake method!, especially if I'm doing an oddball carving with lots of little gaps!
Rick
-------------------- Rick Tam Arte Design Studio Downingtown, PA milne2@msn.com Posts: 278 | From: Downingtown, PA | Registered: Apr 2004
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You can send it all to a smelter and have it refined and poured into a little gold ingot. It can then be sold for the current spot market price.
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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If you can separate the pieces take the gold to a jeweler and have them weigh it for you. They have scales that measure pennyweights, which is a smaller fraction of an ounce and a bit more accurate for weighing light objects like jewelry.
24K gold melts at 1945*F 14K at 1550*F
My dad builds custom jewelry and on occassion will pull up the carpeting from his workshop and empty out the contents of his worktable's drawers (where all the metal filings fall) and have the gold filings reclaimed.
It may not amount to much but it's still better in your pocket than just laying around taking up space.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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I'd be inclined to side with Jane on this one, it's not gonna add up to much. A book contains less than a half a gram of gold to begin with. If you are anything like me, you use 75% or more of the gold in a book, which leaves around .06 of a gram. This is just too much math with all the conversions and all but I'd be willing to bet it's not worth the time.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
So if this is the case: "24K gold melts at 1945*F 14K at 1550*F"
Could you burn the tissue with a blow torch to "disappear" the tissue? And what would happen to the remaining ash? How would you separate it from the gold?
I once heard a story of a sign artist who saved all his skewings for many years, reclaimed them and had a ring made from the resulting gold. Don't know if it is true or if it is just a Letterhead version of a "Fish Tale".
BTW Bill, MARIS is the one who insists I save all the skewings. Like Jane, I have little faith in the value vs. the process. But it would be fun to try if anyone has some ideas. I have about 1/2 grocery bag full (much with tissue) now.
posted
I save all patent leaf, when reduced to a fine powder by using a mortar and pedestal, and mixed w/clear and sprayed, it makes a great base for candies in small pinstriping graphics...sure wish Deft still made their candy nitro-cellouse lacquers...w/today's urethane clears,what a killer setup that would be, fast equates to money...I used to pump out upwards of 20 vehicles a day w/graphics; painted...vans came along and number went down to around 12/15 a day, different deal though, most were handlettered and pinstriped, then there were the 2-4 a day, roof down custom paint jobs, those were fun and very profitable if you were fast, ah, the old days..... I also use old gold slewwings for guests, a piece on top of chocolate chips adds a classy touch to table-top treats...just litely wet chip and apply gold...let dry...done(i use small brush to wet chip, just one stroke is all it takes, less is more here, leaf will stick to anything-even warming chip will provide enough tooth)......
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
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Rick Glawson expressed to me that a collection of skewings large enough to form a ring qualified an individual as a master gilder within in their trade.
This was a "Factiod" that "Daddy Finegold" had ran across in his research work with historical documents.
This would typically be gauged by a body of work over time rather than one large job, and scrap books left over.
-------------------- Ron Percell Percell Signs 707-769-0639 Petaluma, California
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Ron, Rick was a big man, so he probably had to execute 1 and 1/2 times the guilds to earn his ring. So...He was a "Master and a Half" by the time he earned his ring haha
-------------------- Kathy Joiner River Road Graphics 41628 River Road Ponchatoula, La.70454
Old enough to know better...Too young to resist. Posts: 1891 | From: Ponchatoula, LA | Registered: Nov 2000
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well I guess Kathy and Ron are both right.....Rick was a big man (5foot-18inches or so) and the therefore ring must have been at least 2 and half lifetimes of work!
When I was doing fire trucks, I saved all those used sheets and skewings. When they piled up too much, I'd sit down at night while watching TV, and take a small shallow box and put it on my lap with a small piece of glass, and I would scrape the gold off with a single edge razor blade. Just hold the blade upright, and slide it sideways, and the gold will come right off.
I used approx 1 1/2 packs of 23k gold A WEEK, and after about 2 years I took the skewings to a jeweler, who melted it down in a crucible. I ended up with a nugget about 1/2" x 3/4", which I sold for cash at the time. I can't for the life of me remember the weight or how much I got for it, but it was less than I thought it would be.
I still save gold, even though I don't use that much anymore...I just hate to throw anything away. Actually, it is probably more useful for filling in small corners in dimensional stuff, than it would be to save it for cash or making rings, but the ring thing WOULD be a great conversation piece with alot of sentimental value.
[ December 16, 2005, 09:36 AM: Message edited by: Jeff Ogden ]
-------------------- Jeff Ogden 8727 NE 68 Terr. Gainesville FL, 32609 Posts: 2138 | From: 8827 NE 68 Terr Gainesville Fl 32609 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I remember calling Inez Sepp one time, years ago, to order a pack of leaf. She informed me that it would be awhile before they got any gold in; Rick Glawson had bought *EVERY* pack of gold in the *COUNTRY*!!! I called him to ask him "What in the world can you possibly be doing?!" He told me he was surface gilding two 19' tall logos for Wells Fargo and a couple of other similar-sized projects. Daddy Finegold was definately one of a kind. I still have the little do dads he made for me at my shop, and, of course, the angel gilding set, part of which was his personal stuff. Man I miss that big guy.
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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Now that sounds like another good idea. But then you always have good ideas. You'll be like one of those old investment commercials on tv. It'll be "When Jeff speaks (and the room turns quiet)...everybody listens.
I also used to do fire trucks galore back in the day. I got in with a salesman for Pierce and traveled the circuit doing trucks. The bulk of the skewings came from that time sequence.
The last couple I did have not held up well, because the fireman didn't head my instructions about caring for the leaf. They complained about it and said they were going to vinyl. So when I went to scope things out, there was a fireman there washing a truck with a brush on a long handle. He was dunking in the bucket going from the dirty wheels of the truck straight up to the gold leaf and scrubbing it around. I said....."Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, What's going on here?"
"Well it's a soft brush, lighten up," he said.
They got a lecture on the spot. Someday there won't be a person on the planet who even knows how to hand gild and letter. Have some respect! By the time I retire, maybe I'll have a gold ring to prove I at least had the capability.
-------------------- Bill Diaz Diaz Sign Art Pontiac IL www.diazsignart.com Posts: 2107 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Dec 2001
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These are the current jars the one on the left is full and quite compressed might be a ring in that !
[ December 16, 2005, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: Terry Colley ]
-------------------- Terry Colley The VintageSign Co 42 barrack hill Romiley Stockport Cheshire, England sk6 3az tel 0161 494 5089 terry@bullandbrush.fsnet.co.uk Posts: 210 | From: England | Registered: Dec 1999
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cheers Si dont know what did wrong on posting
Terry
-------------------- Terry Colley The VintageSign Co 42 barrack hill Romiley Stockport Cheshire, England sk6 3az tel 0161 494 5089 terry@bullandbrush.fsnet.co.uk Posts: 210 | From: England | Registered: Dec 1999
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Bill, The bottles are just the way I would leave them. The gold has been paid for and for what you would get out of it in a nugget, a ring, so what. But in those jars, WOW what a great conversation piece and just think, in the future when you sit back and look into them and see of all the great jobs they were used on and the fun you had doing them. I would keep filling and leave alone.
-------------------- Sam Staffan Mackinaw Art & Sign 721 S. Nokomis St. Mackinaw City, MI dstaffan@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1697 | From: Mackinaw City, MI | Registered: Mar 2004
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...Rick Glawson had a formula to reduce skewings that was published in SOT or SC years ago. (Anybody know which and when?) ...Roughly I remember that he burned the paper and cotton, and then reduced the ash with acid. This was apparently a fumy and toxic process, that could be dangerous. I'm sure it is a common technique that is still used by "smelters".
...Rick had a clear plastic box with a plastic screen on top that he rubbed his used gold paper on. When I saw it, it was about half full. Like in the the jars pictured above, that's PURE GOLD BABY!
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