| Show hes last handmaker hand maker of gold foil in vienna vienna karl ciak celebrated his golden wedding with his golden trade recently ciak sixty seven years old is the lost last representative of flourishing goldbeaters gold beaters trade which eighty years ago employed thirty five masters and 24 0 workmen in 1936 th there ere were still till four masters but no apprentices three of them have died since gold foil is now being manufactured almost exclusively by machines although dark clark thinks th that at the product cannot compare with the handmade hand made foil which he believes to be much more pliable manufacturing goldleaf gold leaf for painters and a gilders is a delicate process which requires great skill and caution every tiny gold plate which is about one tenth of a millimeter thick has to be placed between two sheets of gut A thousand of such enveloped plates are then piled upon each other and the entire stack placed in a parchment bag thereupon the beating begins after the first few thousand blows when the metal has become hot the work must be interrupted for a short time between and blows are sufficient to make the gold smooth and elastic and the hammer must come down about times before the thinness of one one thousandth millimeter is reached |
