Fusing gold leaf to silver sheet

Hi to everyone again, can anybody help with the question above. I am under the impression that gold leaf can be joined by heat to silver, so the questions are, is this true, how is it achieved and what is it called? I think it is a Japanese technique and I am sure I have seen it described on this forum but can't find the thread.

Thanks in anticipation

Steve:confused:

It can, clean silver and relatively low temperature and keum boo in that order :)
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/keumboo.htm

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ps_bond

It can, clean silver and relatively low temperature and keum boo in that order :)
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/keumboo.htm

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Thank you Peter, I thought it was you that had described the process, I'll look at the link to find out how to attach the leaf in the first instance and then have a go, just got some double 24ct loose leaf from Wrights of Lymm and wanted to put some gold onto some silver discs, so thanks again.

Can this technique be done with leaf? I thought you needed foil??
Very interested to know :)

You can, but you might end up with a more subtle effect than you intended; with the thicker foil (and with mokume gane) you get a thin layer of alloyed material forming as the two surfaces fuse - with leaf, as it is much thinner, that thin layer may be full thickness of the leaf (and it can seem that it has disappeared into the silver!). You can overlay with more leaf as well - the gold will bond to itself.

Thanks Peter, that makes sense!

Thanks Tabby66 and Peter, glad you mentioned that, had seen the word foil and in my head pictured leaf as that is what I have, to double leaf does make sense as that is common practice when applying gold leaf (as far as I know)

I did spend some time on this and found the technique too demanding and the foil too expensive to persevere.

Ultimately I settled for thin slices of wire and tube soldered on with the minimum of solder and then rolled down with nylon mesh to create a texture. I was also able to do this with lengths of thin gold wire, all of which go a long way for your money. On the whole I prefer to use 18 carat as it looks brighter on silver.

Below my bug pins to show the effect. Sorry if some have seen them before. Dennis.

I've got to say, Dennis - if you hadn't said those weren't keum boo, I'd have been convinced they were.

A quick google threw this as a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWf8lOiXM6U

I've only skim-watched so far, but it looks fairly thorough. And he does warn not to quench agate burnishers...