Site icon Wonderful Engineering

Watch This Old School Method Of Making Impossibly Thin Gold Leaves From A Tiny Piece Of Gold

The Old School Method of Making Impossibly Thin Gold Leaves from a Tiny Piece of Gold_Image 1

Gold is one of the most malleable and ductile metals. One of the most coveted noble metals, it can be drawn out into a two-mile strip out of a mere gram.

The malleability of the gold is so high that a small coin can be flattened to sheets as thin as 10-3 millimeter.

 

Image Source: Japan Magazine

 

The Japanese are famous for their excellent workmanship of gold. The skilled artisans work with the tools unheard of, transforming the gold pieces into gold leaves.

The gleaming leaves of gold are so thin, they are semi-transparent. Japanese take great pride in the skill using which they transform gold into the lustrous gold leaves. The entire process involves a dizzying number of old tools including chopsticks, tweezers, lye, persimmon liquids, etc. and unbroken series of steps.

 

Image Source: Japan Magazine

 

You can witness the gold leaves being made out of gold alloy in this video:

Exit mobile version