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Bright gold ink, or simulacrum thereof....

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With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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I'm looking for (probably impossibly) a bright gold ink or paint which can be applied with a brush to a faux-leather surface: it doesn't need to a tremendously high-end product, just something that's compatible with the sort of gilding you would find on the editions published by Heron Books (now defunct). It wasn't real gilding, and it comes off if so much as threatened with damp. I would be the first to admit that this is a rather silly request, but I'm a bit on the neurotic side with things like this, and bare patches where gilt should be make me all restive and irritable...... So if you know of a product which offers a fair bit of reflective gloss, and is easy to apply in liquid form AND doesn't just rub off again (this is getting more unrealistic by the second, isn't it...?) well, perhaps you would indulge this silly old fool by letting him know.

Phil Kendall

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Have you thought of Gold Gilding Wax? A it like a polish, you rub it in on a cloth & then polish it off... see my website, page one, the framed image www.artofphilkendall.com Jackson's stock a large range of this...

Edited
by Erebus

With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Ta, will have a look. The trouble with Heron Books, who sold an awful lot of replica editions which looked fine at the time in the 1970s, was that they used stuff called Kidron or Skivertex, which is basically a plasticated paper; on this they printed the gold decoration with no incising into the material (because it was too thin). So if you rub wax (or gold paint) into the surface, all you're going to get is a patch of gold where the pattern was, but - no detail. Even so, I have a number of superannuated leather bound books, on which the design is incised, and this might work as a cheap alternative to having them re-gilded. Wouldn't do it for valuable books, obviously. Why on earth would I bother, you'll be asking yourselves? Ah ..... that's because I'm just a little bit odd, if I'm to tell the truth.... If I were fabulously wealthy (and it's getting a bit late to achieve this happy state) I'd buy a new set of Sir Walter Scott's novels, since these are the volumes in question, and store them in a glass-fronted bookcase in the library of my stately home...... But that's just not going to happen in this life, and I'm not confident in reincarnation. I leave you to the strains of "If I were a rich man......".
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Probably the best option, yes. Although - I'm warming to the brandy option: I'm not sure I have the eyesight for anything else..

David Perry

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FWIW I think genuine gold leaf is not too expensive, stately home or not. It's not hard to apply but might that do? David
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Normally it would, but the way these particular things were gilded, as I've discovered, no: because they're just gold-printed onto a form of paper laminate - nothing for the gold leaf to adhere to. Ho hum. I should have bought more expensively bound books.... Would it spoil some vast eternal plan ---- if I were a wealthyyyyyyyyyy man??? I think I could play the part of Tevye - I'd bring real authentic need to it.......