The production process of gold foil is unique

The production process of gold foil is unique and requires high technical requirements. It has been handmade since ancient times. The main production process is: melt the gold into small strips; beat the gold bars and cut them into small thin slices of several millimeters square; make twisters to sandwich the small thin gold slices in black gold paper smoked with kerosene. This kind of black gold paper is produced in Shangyu and Fuyang, Zhejiang. It is made of young bamboo grown in that year and is finally made after being soaked and fermented for 5 dog days. Therefore, it is also called "Five Dog Days Paper". 2016 pieces of 20 cm square black gold paper are stacked into a square block. Commonly known as "Jiasheng", it can hold 2014 small gold flakes. After the outer layer is wrapped with kraft paper, it can be beaten into foil. One person must hold a hammer weighing several kilograms to beat it, and another person holds a hammer to cooperate with the upper and lower hammers. It takes several hours of beating to beat the small gold flakes in the "Jiasheng" into very thin gold foil. Picking up and cutting foil: Use a feather to pick out the gold foil from the Jiasheng and place it on another paper base, and cut it into finished gold foils of various sizes with a bamboo knife according to the specifications. In the late 1970s, manual beating was replaced by machine beating, freeing foil workers from heavy physical labor.