KEUM-BOO

by Charles Lewton-Brain
Artwork on the cover by Estelle R. Vernon
KEUM-BOO Lewton-Brain ©1987/00/08

Introduction
INTRODUCTION
This paper teaches an understanding of how to easily hot burnish gold foil permanently
This paper teaches an understanding of how to easily hot burnish gold foil per-
onto silver objects, and raw sheet for building patterned objects with. This incredibly
manently onto silver objects, and raw sheet for building patterned objects with.
simple and easy
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Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 2

So what is Gold Foil? And Gold Leaf?

Gold foil is very very thin gold. It is not gold leaf, which is readily available and comes
 SO WHAT IS GOLD FOIL? AND GOLD LEAF?
Gold foil is very very thin gold. It is not gold leaf, which is readily available and comes in ‘books’ of in-
wide brushes charged with static electricity (by rubbing the brush on your hair). The best
terleaved paper and gold, intended for gilding picture frames, books etc. Gold leaf is so thin that it always
brushes glued
are made
on (usingfrom
oil or squirrel
water basedear hairs
‘sizing’, (andrecently
or more just how did someone figure that out?).
Verathane).

The difference between foil and leaf is that if you touch foil it is still there, if you touch leaf it disintegrates.
We therefore need to use gold foil instead for this procedure. You can buy specially made
Gold leaf is actually carried about and moved into position using wide brushes charged with static elec-
keum-boo foil
tricity (by ready-made
rubbing the brushfrom several
on your suppliers
hair). The and
best brushes are refiners
made fromin North
squirrel ear America.
hairs (and just
how did someone figure that out?).
NormallyWeItherefore
make my need own, actually
to use gold I don’t
foil instead for thisthink I’veYou
procedure. ever bought
can buy it.made
specially It iskeum-boo
very easy foil to
make. I ready-made
heard once fromthat a fair
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suppliers andthe special
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in North gold foil
America. Normally I make sold in the
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actually
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don’t in the
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ever bought it. ItStates by to
is very easy a number ofonce
make. I heard graduate
that a fairstudents working
bit of the special for a
keum-boo
professor at their university.
gold foil sold in the 90’s in the USA was made in the United States by a number of graduate students
working for a professor at their university.

Enameling Foil

Enameling gold foil may be used for keum-boo, though it is so thin that when applied it
has a green tint from the silver beneath. Once applied however it is easy to place more
gold foil on top and bond the gold to itself to thicken the covering.
CharlesEnameling foil
Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 3 can be
applied in multiple layers. It is a bit tricky to burnish it without ripping and tearing. An
agate or sapphire burnisher can help in this regard.
ENAMELING FOIL
Enameling gold foil may be used for keum-boo, though it is so thin that when applied it has a green tint
from the silver beneath. Once applied however it is easy to place more gold foil on top and bond the
gold to itself to thicken the covering. Enameling foil can be applied in multiple layers. It is a bit tricky to
burnish it without ripping and tearing. An agate or sapphire burnisher can help in this regard.

If the decorated silver is in sheet form it can be rolled. This thins out the gold and makes the stretched
enameling foil pattern resemble green watercolor washes. Where they overlay each other (say one, two
or three layers) the gold color is intensified so that one develops a palette of varied greenish tones and
golds to work in design. The thinner the layer the more greenish it looks. Enameling foils applied thin
like this, so they look pale and green, can disappear into the silver surface if the material is hard soldered
or heated to a high temperature. Thicker hand-made foil does not really experience this problem – just
remember that if it is too thick you can have peeling problems.

ELECTRUM
The white silver/gold alloy called Electrum can be used the same way as 24k foil to stick to the above
metals. Electrum is a rather white metal but unlike silver does not react with liver of sulfur and so provi-
des options for yellow (gold), white (silver) and black (oxidized) on the same silver object. Electrum is a
45-50% mix of gold/silver.

Metals you can apply the gold foil to The keum-boo procedure lets Metals you can
you apply 24 k yellow gold foil shapes onto various metals. It is easiest
and most common to apply the gold on silver and silver alloys, but apply the gold foil
many other metals will work as a base as well. to The keum-boo
Keum-boo can be done on raw sheet or wire to be used for later
procedure lets you
soldered construction, onto finished silver jewelry or objects, fine apply 24k yellow
silver, sterling silver, other silver alloys, silver metal clays (like PMC gold foil shapes
and Artclay) and Argentium. Argentium has the advantage that the
onto various metals.
silver surface is unlikely to tarnish with time, and so the final decisions
about the surface of the piece will last. On sterling, tarnish will set in
on the exposed silver parts eventually and require dipping in tarnish remover.

It works well on any white, red and yellow gold alloys, on platinum and palladium. The procedure can be
used with some difficulty to apply gold foil to copper. The gold foil is very easily applied to aluminum,
immediately after sanding or scraping the contact area. Polished steel accepts the gold foil well.

A note on the aluminum. It went down easily on standard sanded aluminum. I then tried to anodize it.
The gold of course was much more conductive than the aluminum, and as I ran the current through the
acid bath there was this sort of intense fizzing as the gold attracted all the power, and disappeared in a
cloud of bubbles. You could do it by using a resist over the gold, or take anodized material and scrape
the area you want to apply the gold to.

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 4

THE KOREAN CONNECTION
This Korean technique for applying 24k gold to silver was in fact widely used in various cultures; Japanese,
Chinese and in the West historically primarily to adhere gold to iron, steel and copper. I found a few his-
torical mentions in the West of application of gold to silver using the same methods used in Asia, though
there are plenty of Roman and Greek artifacts which upon reexamination in recent years seem to have
been gilded in this manner. Theophilus writing in the 10th century speaks of bonding pure gold sheet to
silver by heating them and hammering, smoothing them together on an anvil.

The Korean method has several spellings including Kum-bu. Several Koreans have given me slightly
different versions of the procedure. Many Koreans teach that only finished objects should be done/can
be done with keum-boo. Some will scrape the silver surface just before doing the keum-boo and some
will use the heating and pickling depletion silvering that is now common in the West.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
It is important to consider how you will use the keum-boo process for design. Many North Americans use
straight cuts, angular shapes. This is a reflection of the easy tool to use in cutting the gold; scissors or
shears. One can do remarkable patterns with keum-boo if more time is taken, and very complex patterns
remain unexplored territory in the West.

The advent of the scrapbook craze has led to the introduction of wonderful pattern cut scissors which
give much more interesting possibilities. There are also fantastic paper punches in all sorts of shapes,
spirals, rectangles etc available.

Gloria Prival, of New York City once made a series of full size sterling silver ties in all kinds of variations.
One of them was a checkered tie. She laid out the pattern by carefully scribing the grid, then cut ena-
meling foil in squares and applied them on a hot plate set to the right temperature. It took a while. She
would line up one edge, tack it down on one side and then let the gold down from that edge, then burnish
it tight. The resulting checkerboard tie was lovely.

Allan Mak of Alberta created a series of remarkable keum-boo pieces while a student at the Alberta
College of Art and Design about ten years ago. He would make complex pictures with gold foil on large
sheets of silver. He starting his experiments using playing card or butterfly designs. He would roll out the
gold foil carefully into large sheets, place a complex image on top
and then painstakingly cut out hundred of small shaped holes pro-
ducing large lace-like designs. These were then hot burnished onto
The point is that you
sheets of silver, framed and used as wall art. For his graduating piece can really exploit
he had a very large sheet of silver, 14 inches long or so, and on it was keum-boo if you try,
a picture of Stonehenge, sort of tumbling and turning into Ankor
and take it further
Watt which then became a downtown cityscape in full perspective
with all the building’s windows cut out in place. than most do.

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 5

APPLYING THE GOLD
The version I personally prefer to use is to take the fi-
nished object (or raw sheet) made in sterling, depletion
silver it (bring up the fine silver) by repeated heating,
quenching in water and pickling until it is completely
white. I usually brass brush with soapy water and rin-
se in between these picklings. Then I heat with a hot-
plate or a flame; whichever provides the most even and
constant type of heating for the particular object. Thin
gold foil is placed on the object and a polished burni-
sher tacks it down at one corner or edge, then presses
the rest of it tightly onto the surface thus fixing it per-
manently in place.

When moving the gold around to place it fine pointed tweezers can be useful. Another way of moving
the foil is to touch one side of the tweezers to water, then to the gold and it will pick up the gold piece
and let you move it around and place it. Some people place all the foil
pieces first then gently heat the sheet or object until the right tempera-
You can distinctly
ture is reached, and burnish it down. I usually place the pieces one at a
tell when the foil time into a planned pattern, fixing each as I add it.
has stuck, just a
The gold will not stick until the correct temperature is reached. This is
little pressure and probably 662F or 350C. That is hot, but not too hot, as metals do not
the contact point begin to give off a glow until over 900F, 483C. In other words if your hot
and it flattens, plate or metal is actually glowing, you are too hot.

almost sucks You can distinctly tell when the foil has stuck, just a little pressure and
onto the surface the contact point and it flattens, almost sucks onto the surface; if you
still have another part of the foil held in your tweezers you can tug and it
won’t pull off, in fact you could even pick up the silver piece with it. Now
the silver is at the temperature to rapidly and carefully burnish the whole piece of gold in place.

If a hot plate with an open spiral element is used then generally a thickish piece of steel, copper or brass is
laid on top of the element to transfer the heat more smoothly to the silver sheet being the gold foil is being
applied to. If you have a hot plate with a smooth metal top then you don’t need a heat transfer sheet. The
main reason to cover the element is the irritation of having your piece drop through the element or tipping
at inopportune moments while burnishing.

Three dimensional objects may require torch use to heat them up. This works fine, but requires the flame
to be juggled a bit, or may need a helper. It is possible to get the metal too hot if you don’t pay attention.
Too hot can threaten solder seams or make a thin foil absorb. It is possible to heat the silver up enough
over an alcohol lamp to perform keum-boo on it.

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 6

CALIBRATING THE TEMPERATURE ON A HOT PLATE
It can be useful to know where an appropriate temperature is on a hot plate is, just so that you don’t have
to have the silver hotter than it needs to be. This means your hands will be more comfortable, especially
in a longer procedure.

Take a piece of steel, like tool steel stock or even a large nut. Sand Kevlar® gloves can be
one surface clean and then set it on the hot plate. Set the hot plate
on low and watch what color the steel turns. Turn the hot plate
really useful to keep
up and hold the temperature in steps until the steel turns a bright your hands protected
blue. This is the right temperature for keum-boo. Now mark the from the heat if doing
dial on the hot plate clearly with a black permanent marker and
a long or complex hot
you will have calibrated your hot plate to the right temperature.
Now when you want to do keum-boo just set the hot plate to that burnishing procedure.
mark, and you won’t be putting out more heat than necessary.

Kevlar® gloves can be really useful to keep your hands protected from the heat if doing a long or com-
plex hot burnishing procedure. Light duty ones, which are about the same thickness as a cotton garde-
ning glove offer good dexterity and still work very well. They can be as affordable as $2.00 a pair, from
companies like MSCdirect.com, McMaster Carr, Graingers, Northern Hardware and many others. These
gloves let you pick materials heated up to 900F, 482C.

WHEN CAN KEUM-BOO BE USED?

Koreans generally use Keum-boo only on the finished object, with at least one person I met insisting
that it could not be used on silver if later heatings were to occur. I however frequently make keum-boo
patterned sheet that is afterwards rolled, rollerprinted, scored, soldered, forged, fold-formed and so on
to make pieces with. This is the way I usually use keum-boo. Any solderings or heatings that are done
do not affect the keum-boo foil if it is of a reasonable thickness. Having said that, if you were to take the
silver up too high in temperature, over hard soldering, or near fusing, then it is indeed possible to have
your gold foil absorb into the silver. It disappears, or at least seems to have disapeared after it is pickled.
However the foil has alloyed into the silver and while appearing white, matching the surrounding silve, it
won’t react to liver of sulfur as the surrounding silver would. It stays white. This gives an opportunity to
design with white pattern on an oxidized (dark) ground.

The other reason that the gold might

absorb at high temperatures is if the
foil is very thin, as some commercial
gold keum-boo foils are, and as en-
ameling foils are. If you are working
with very thin gold foils be careful
with the higher temperatures of sol-
dering or annealing. Rebecca Geofrey

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 7

MAKING YOUR OWN GOLD FOIL
The gold foil may be made by rolling a piece of 24k
gold as thin as one can go on the mill and then conti-
nuing to roll it for some time at the tightest setting.
It is surprising how it will continue to extend. It is
annealed now and then during the rolling process.

I normally use a torch for annealing, but only the

very soft cooler end of a largish flame. As soon as
the flame bouncing off the metal turns a distinct
orange stop heating because the foil is annealed. An
alcohol lamp or even a cigarette lighter may be used
to anneal the gold when it is this thin, and it may be
safer to do so this way as it is easy to melt the thin
foil when using a torch flame.

It is now necessary to make the foil even thinner.

Some people continue to roll it with a piece of paper
on one or both sides of the gold to increase pressure
on it and make it stretch out more. This works well
for making foil for enameling and the small ruptures
that result from doing it this way help while ename-
ling as they let air leave from under the foil.

For keum-boo I prefer to use a sheet of copper as

a plate to add pressure to what the mill can do by
itself. The gold foil is placed onto a sheet of clean
copper that is longer that than the gold, but not a
whole lot wider. The gold foil is rolled further with
the copper sheet and it continues to get thinner,
and longer. I will wipe the copper with a thin film
of oil to discourage the gold from bonding to the
copper sheet. If your copper sheet were really clean,
sanded, grease-free, and your gold as well it is pos-
sible to stick it quite successfully onto the copper
while rolling it – irritatingly so. It is worth noting that
pressure and clean metal can actually bond at room
temperature.

If your gold is cracking a lot at the edges trim down

past the end of the crack with scissors as soon as you
notice one beginning. The time spent to prune and
the apparent loss of material pays of in getting a fi-

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 8

nal, large sheet with no big cracks in it. The smoother
the edge of the sheet the less likely cracks are. You
can also reduce cracking by frequent annealing. If
you pay attention, use small increments of increased
pressure so you can catch a crack just beginning and
trim it off, then you will be able to obtain larger areas
of foil without cracks.

It is very difficult to make the gold foil too thin by

hand. I’ve never managed to approach the thinness,
for instance, of enameling foil by making it myself.
I probably just didn’t spend enough time on it. Too
thick on the other hand is a possibility and that
causes adhesion problems. Basically you can’t make
it too thin if you are trying by yourself, so keep on
rolling. I do it till it reads .001mm on my micrometer
– or does not register at all. Keum-boo, even very
thin, is remarkably durable and can even be used on
metal surfaces subject to abrasion, like rings.

WHERE TO GET THE GOLD?

I generally get my pure gold from a coin shop that deals with jewelers. I buy stamped bar or 24k coins
there. The reason is that because these are considered currency there is no tax on them, which can save
me some real money. The stamped bars come in all sizes, 15 grams and as small as one gram bars (yes
you pay more per gram if you buy less than an ounce). Refiners and tool suppliers will sell pure gold to
make foil from. You generally pay the market value plus tax.

Banks can be another source for pure gold, but I don’t generally use them. They charge a considerable
handling fee, more than $25 an ounce normally, and take a ‘spread’ on the day or spot price which costs
you as well. In Canada, if it is not a stamped bar Making Keum-boo Foil
or an actual coin then you pay federal tax as well.

Pawn shops can be a good source for gold. If you

build a little relationship with a pawn shop you
can often get gold for 5% below the spot or day
price. You pay cash, you get a proper receipt you
can use, but it is a discount, because the pawn
shop itself gets 5% below spot from the refiner. If
they have cash immediately that is preferable for
them than waiting for a refiner to get their check
back to them.
Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 9
THE VELCRO EFFECT
I remember bad kids in high school who would peel the thin aluminum foil off the inside of a cigarette
package and then burnish it tightly with fingernails or wood onto a Formica countertop or table. This
foil was almost impossible to remove and was very durable. You can imagine part of what is happening
in keum-boo as a Velcro-like effect, where the ups and downs, the micro texture of the surface is inti-
mately fitted to the foil, and this provides adhesion. It is clear there is no diffusion of metal atoms into a
Formica® table surface.

There is also the effect of atomic attraction, that is if you put atoms close enough together there is some
attraction between them, and these two things combine to keep the foil so well, so permanently, on the
table. In my opinion this texture fit, and atomic attraction, is a significant part of what makes keum-boo work.

HOW THE GOLD REMOVES OXYGEN

On Platinum
An original contribution of this paper lies in theorizing the mechanism by which Keumboo works. A me-
tallurgist observing a keum-boo demonstration informed me that above a certain temperature thin gold
foil begins to pass oxygen atoms through itself and is actually used as a filter material in some industrial
applications. It is for instance used to pull oxygen out of a mixed gas atmosphere. Two chambers are se-
parated by a thin gold foil barrier. When it is heated to about 650F (350C) the foil suddenly starts to pass
oxygen through it, removing the oxygen from the mixed gasses and drawing it into the other chamber.

Theoretically then the heated gold when thin enough and at the right temperature passes oxygen
through and with pressure (burnishing) produces oxygen-free conditions in contact with the silver or
other metal below it -- allowing pressure welding to occur. Western sources describing applying gold
to steel and copper using this procedure mention as a colour/temperature indicator that the metals
oxidize bright blue before the gold will stick (Diebeners, p. 72 and Wilson, p. 472). Experimentation with
a cleaned piece of steel heated over a low flame as a heat transfer to the silver showed this to be true;
blue appeared when the gold stuck. This temperature corresponds to between 650-950oF or 352-510oC
(Andrews, p. 50).
Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 10
In support of this idea it is noted that at about 350oC (652oF) gold shows changes in it’s electron rings.
It is postulated that this corresponds with the dissolution of a gold oxide present on the metal surface
(Gmelin, p. 670). This is the temperature range where steel is bright blue and gold foil will stick to the
base metal.

Christine Dhein writes “Pure precious metals such as But because other metals like
gold and silver, have a very similar atomic structure, and
copper, aluminum, platinum
therefore have a good potential for bonding. Heating
these metals to a temperature between 500-700°F in- and steel all work with
creases the movement of the atoms. When pressure is keumboo it seems to me that
added, this causes an electron exchange at the surface the bonding mechanism is
between the two metals, creating a permanent diffusion
bond. This diffusion bond occurs far below the soldering
more likely to be a mixture
temperature for either metal. (Dhein, 2004)” I do not of the Velcro effect, atomic
believe there is much actual diffusion occurring at this attraction and the ability of
low temperature, no deep wandering of atoms into each
gold to remove oxygen
side, though I would go for atomic attraction, and some
very small amount of diffusion.

But because other metals like copper, aluminum, platinum and steel all work with keumboo it seems to
me that the bonding mechanism is more likely to be a mixture of the Velcro effect, atomic attraction
and the ability of gold to remove oxygen (and maybe return oxides to their metal state-thus removing
oxides) and so allowing the two metals a better, closer atomic attraction. If gold loses its own oxide at
this temperature, and this is the same temperature that it passes oxygen through itself, then it seems
possible to me that the gold may ‘dissolve’ oxides to some degree.

I thought that if this was so then the gold should actually be able to work on dirty (oxidized) sterling
and copper. I found that if I made the foil very thin that it would indeed stick to oxidized sterling, and to
copper. It was a little difficult to do, but certainly worked. For an easy life however stick to the fine silver
or depletion silvered surfaces.

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 11

FINISH CHOICES
There are a number of finish choices available. I like a brass brushed finish because I use the depletion
silvering to cover up firescale on the objects. I feel that the gold color is more beautiful when it is satin
finished, and more clear. It is important to use soapy water when you brass brush as brass can be trans-
ferred to the piece if no lubricant is used.

Liver of Sulfur: This approach gives you a number of shades dark, blue, and colors on the silver portions
of the object, leaving the gold untouched (or it the foil was very thin – darkened and colored). See the
appendix for a full and detailed discussion of this approach.

It is important to use Trade jewelers have a trick question: what color is a 14k yellow
gold polished ring? The answer is “the color of whatever the ring
soapy water when you is next to”. What this means is that high polished surfaces take
brass brush as brass on the color of the surroundings, they “bring the world onto the
can be transferred object”. If you do keum-boo and polish the surface then you can’t
really see the gold well, you lose that luscious buttery yellow when
to the piece if no
you polish it. Thus my preference for a satin finish instead – it lets
lubricant is used. you see the gold.

Lets say that you did want to polish the object. You might polish the entire piece and then depletion silver
it, but with no brass brushing, and taking care not to scratch the work. Then apply the gold foil. Finally
buff the surface with a soft new cotton buff with no compound on it, and it will come up to a good shine
again, with any firescale formed covered by the lightly buffed fine silver coating from the depletion gil-
ding. Woolen buffs with no compound on them will produce a shiny, yet satin surface. Jeweler’s woolen
buffs were traditionally made from men’s suit cloth. Allcraft Supplies, and others, still supply woolen buffs.

There are different types of burnishers used for

keum-boo. I usually use highly polished steel bur- w
nishers similar to those used by printmakers. A
smooth, hard, highly polished tool surface that
can ignore the temperatures used for keum-boo
is a good idea. Tungsten burnishers will work. In
general gemstone burnishers give a better shine
than steel. Agate and haematite give an excellent
finish. Gem cutter Tim Roark has made sapphire
burnishers that are not affected by the heat while
still being very smooth. I always worry about using,
say, an agate burnisher on hot metal, as I have
seen gems fly apart before when heated. The sap- Charles Lewton Brain
phire ones are not affected by heat.

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 12

 Chao-Hsien kuo

It works well to use a steel burnisher to apply the gold, then follow up when cold with an agate or hae-
matite burnisher for a great final shine. Some people use a little soapy water as a lubricant for this, I don’t
usually bother. It is a good idea to touch up the final object with a gemstone burnisher, particularly on
edges and corners.

If possible, with any burnishing, it is a good idea to keep the burnisher just on the gold itself and to try
not to rub the surrounding metal, making marks that would need dealing with later. Another reason for
brass brushing – it blends any burnishing marks on the gold and surrounding metal. Don’t put a mark in
the metal if you don’t want it there. Tumble finishing is another option and works well with this material.

Sometimes a sealer is used over a metal surface, particularly, say if you wanted to keep the white of
the silver against the yellow of the gold. Nicholas Lacquer® is very good for this, I’ve seen a piece ten
years after application and the silver was still dead white, with no visible shine from the coating. Other
coatings include any kind of ‘once-a-year” car wax, Turtle Wax®, Renaissance wax®, clear auto enamel
and something called “Dead Clear Flat Matt Enamel” from Star Industries in Texas. Things you want to
think about with a coating are its reaction to temperature changes (I’ve seen pieces crackle when left in
a car trunk in the winter), light and abrasion exposure.

Ideally one would do BURNISHING TEXTURED SURFACES

the keum-boo first Sometimes a surface is highly textured. Ideally one would do the
and then texture, keum-boo first and then texture, but sometimes you still have to
but sometimes you consider applying gold foil into recessed, textured surfaces. Pointy
still have to consider burnishers can work as long as you can find a way to press the gold
onto the silver everywhere into the texture while the metal is hot. I
applying gold foil have used a stiff steel wire brush, with thicker wires, to press the gold
into recessed, onto the silver. But when all is said and done, it is better to apply the
textured surfaces. gold first and then texture.
Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 13
APPLYING THE GOLD FOIL TO...
COPPER
While I had not had much luck burnishing gold foil to copper except under a cover of molten flux Richard
Mafong in Atlanta reported no such difficulty. I tried again with thinner (0.002 - 0.004 mm) sheet and
this proved very successful. If gold possessed this filtering ability it might dissolve oxides by removing
available oxygen and allowing mechanical, pressure adhesion to occur. This seems in fact to be the case.
I decided to test it and thought that if this were so then if it were very thin it. I have placed thin gold foil
easily onto copper and aluminum, polished and unpolished. Of interest is that the thin gold foil works
well on aluminum and this seems to offer some possibilities of combining gold and aluminum.

STEEL
My early experiments with applying gold to steel did not go well, but I found that if I made the foil thinner
it would work. Western sources mention roughening the area to receive gold with a dilute solution of
hydrochloric acid (Diebeners, p. 72) or nitric (Wilson, p. 472) before applying it. I have never needed this,
but was told of a Korean using a fluid on the area to receive the gold.

While in the west the historical point has often to place the gold on steel (in armor making) in Korea
goldsmiths complain about the gold sticking to the steel burnisher if it gets too hot. It is in this manner
that I have easily attached gold to steel; onto the polished burnisher while working. I usually have a small
cup of water handy and repeatedly quench the burnisher to cool it while working to stop this happening.
It does not affect the keum-boo process to cool the burnisher.

PLATINUM AND GOLD ALLOYS

The procedure for bonding the gold is the same onto silver as onto platinum, except that to bond it to
platinum the temperature needs to be higher than for silver. A dull red glow (with the lights off) is neces-
sary on a hot plate to have the right temperature to burnish the gold onto platinum. When I first started
experimenting with platinum I had a demonstration to prepare and could not get the gold to stick to
the platinum. I was getting worried and then tried it hotter, looks to be around 1,100F or so, a dull glow.
Then it worked like a charm.

REACTIVE METALS
It does not work on niobium in my experience and is very difficult on titanium, but could be applied in a
different manner, using cloth area inlay, a technique done using a sharp chisel, that raises up a field of
minute spikes which interlock in the foil when it is planished onto the chiseled texture. That is however,
not keum-boo.

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 14

OTHER ALLOYS USED FOR KEUM-BOO FOILS
Some people use 23K foil, and even 22, but I would definitely make life easier for myself and just use pure
24k foil. Richard Mafong from Atlanta reports using a 14k gold thin sheet as a keum-boo material. He
heats and pickles it repeatedly to depletion gild the surface and treats
it in the same manner as pure gold in applying it to the silver.
Because of the
Because of the ease with which keum-boo may be done it offers a very ease with which
controllable method of pattern development using gold on other metals.
Mafong’s use of 14k offers a choice of gold color as well if the pure gold
keum-boo may
on the top surface of the 14k is removed by polishing after the keum-boo be done it offers a
procedure. Thin colored golds such as reds and greens could be applied very controllable
this way, the tops emeried off to reveal the core color. I have tried it and method of pattern
the foil is very rigid so smaller areas may be a good idea.
development
Joe Dule from New York City has made the 12 Karat Au/Ag Electrum using gold on
alloy for keumboo work; a 50/50 mix of gold and silver which appears
very white, like a white gold. This was a metal mixture used for a lot of
other metals.
Roman jewelry. It can be rolled out extremely thin and be applied to a
sterling object just like the 24k gold foil. If the object is then darkened with potassium sulfide (liver of
sulfur) solution any 24k material remains bright gold against the black ground and the 12 karat alloy
shows up white and bright allowing one to have white, gold-yellow and black to work with as a compo-
sitional system.

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 15

 the gold standing up in relief like small islands.

KEUM BOO AS A RESIST

Besides clearly resisting chemicals like liver of sulfur and so pro-
viding pattern options the pure gold foil is resistant to acid attack,
which means you can use ferric nitrate, or nitric acid to etch the
silver object. The silver is dissolved leaving the areas protected by
the gold standing up in relief like small islands.

KEUM-BOO UNDER ENAMEL

Keum-boo under enamel
Keum-boo works under enamel. Keum-boo works
There is some underofenamel.
possibility There issosome
bubbles appearing, using possibility
paper for the of bubble
Keum-boo
final thinning will produce small holesfor
paper theunder
in the foil
final enamel
that thinning
can help any bubbles
will trapped
produce under
small it to escape
holes in the foil that
during the enamel firing. Keum-boo
Keum-boo works underunderenamel enamel. There is some possibility of bubble
trapped under it to escape during the enamel firing.
paper
Keum-boo
Keum-boo for the finalunder
works
under thinning
enamel will produce
enamel. There issmallsomeholes in the of
possibility foilbubble
that
Most failures in trapped
paper
Keum-boo
Trouble forunder
TROUBLE the
worksit tounder
final
SHOOTING
Shooting escape
thinning during
enamel. the enamel
will produce
There issmall
some firing.
holes in the of
possibility foilbubble
that
adhesion with trapped
paper forunder it to thinning
the final escape during the enamel
will produce smallfiring.
holes in the foil that
If the gold is very thin (such as enamelling foil) or if the silver is heated
keum-boo come Trouble
trapped
If the Shooting
under itistoathin
escape during the enamel firing.
verygoldhigh is very
there (such
possibility of as
gold enamelling
diffusion andfoil) or if by
absorption thethe
silver is he
Trouble Shooting
in my opinion from a possibility of gold
silver. This results diffusionfrom
in everything andanabsorption by the silver.
increase in paleness or a tilt This res
If the
Trouble gold is very
Shooting thin (such as enamelling foil) or if theshape
silverof is th
he
too thick a gold foil from aIf
to an
possibility
increase
greenness
isof
inshape
in the
gold
paleness
of theor
diffusion
foilato
and
tilt to greenness
a complete
absorption
in the
fading out due to
the
fadingtotalgold
out due very
absorption. to thin
total
Where (suchhas as
absorption.
this enamelling
occurred Where this
there will beby
foil)
has the
noor ifsilver.
the to
occurred
reaction This
silver
thereisres
he
wi
being used. from
aIf the an
possibility
livergold increase
isof
ofsulfur
sulfurvery inthin
gold
during paleness
(such or
diffusion
coloring. aenamelling
asand tilt to greenness
absorption by or
foil) inifthe
the theshape
silver. This
silver of th
isres
he
liver of during coloring.
fading
from anout
a possibility due of to
increase total
in
gold absorption.
paleness
diffusion orand Where
a tilt this by
to greenness
absorption hastheoccurred
in the shape
silver. there
This wi
ofres
th
If small bubbles appear when the metal is reheated or annealed ignore them until the piece is done and
then simply burnish the bubbles
liver
fading
from
If small
down
of
anoutsulfur
dueduring
increase
bubbles
flat
toappear
total
in
with a fingernail
coloring.
absorption.
paleness
when
and orthe
they
Where
a tilt
willmetal is this
to greenness
disappear.
has in
reheated occurred
If a bubble orthe shape
is annealed
large
there wi
ofigno
th
then prick its center with a pinliver
fading
piece of
and reheat sulfur
isoutdonedue
the during
and
metalto to
total
then coloring.
absorption.
simply
repeat burnish
the keum-boo Where the this has occurred
bubbles
burnishing down
procedure flatthere
thus withwi a
fixing the gold foil in place. If small
liver of bubbles
sulfur appear
during when
coloring. the metal is reheated
will disappear. If a bubble is large then prick its center with a pin a or annealed igno
piece
If small isthedone
bubbles andappear
thenburnishing
simply
when the burnish
metalthe is bubbles
reheated down flat with
or annealed a
igno
Most failures in adhesion withrepeat
keum-boo keum-boo
come in my opinion from tooprocedure
thick a gold thus fixing
foil being used.the
Togold foil
will
piece disappear.
If small is done
bubbles and Ifappear
a bubble
then simply
when is large
burnish
the thenthe
metal prick
is its center
bubbles
reheated down with a pin
flat with
or annealed aa
igno
repeat, in my experience, if the keum-boo peels off then the foil was too thick. Assuming that the surface
repeat
will isthe
disappear.
piecebrought
was cleaned, greasefree, fine silver donekeum-boo
and
up by
If burnishing
a bubble
then
depletion simply is large procedure
then prick thusitsfixing
centerthe
silvering.burnish the bubbles down flat with a
withgold foila
a pin
repeat the keum-boo
will disappear. burnishing
If a bubble is large procedure
then prick thusitsfixing
centerthe withgold foila
a pin
repeat the keum-boo burnishing procedure thus 12 fixing the gold foil
12
12
12

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 16

APPENDICES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Andrews, Jack, Edge of the Anvil, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, 1977.
Diebeners, Wilhelm, Wekstattrezepte fur Graveure, Gurtler, Galvaniseure und
Stempelhersteller, Wilhelm Diebener, Leipzig 0 5, Druck; Glass und Tuscher, M
135-305.
Dhein, Christine (2004). "Keum-Boo Pillow Pendant" (dvd)
Ganzenmuller, Wilheim, Gmelins Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie, System
Nummer 62, GOLD, Lieferung 1 und 2, Verlag Chemie GMSH, Weinbaum, 1950.
Wilson, H., Silverwork and Jewellery, John Hogg Pub., London, 1912.

DESIGN OPTIONS
Yellow on black and grey.

EQUIPMENT LIST FOR DOING KEUM-BOO

• Extension cord

• A hot plate (preferably with a smooth metal disc top rather than an exposed element).

• Slightly curved jewelers steel burnisher. A sapphire or tungsten burnisher can also be used.

• Container of water for quenching steel burnisher in to keep it cool.

• Sparex® (sodium bisulfate) in a pickle pot, copper tongs, a sink to rinse in.

• An annealing station with a torch for heating three dimensional work.

• Brass Brush and soapy water or some dishwashing liquid for brass brushing sterling silver between
picklings.

• Potassium Sulfide (liver of sulfur)

• Sheet Rolling Mill

• Sterling sheet in mixed gauges or a finished sterling object onto which gold will be placed. (prepare it
by heating and pickling several times)

• 24k gold grain or sheet which can be rolled out or gold enamelling foil

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 17

TIPS ON USING LIVER OF SULFUR (FROM “PATINAS FOR SMALL STUDIOS”
This is a mixture of potassium sulfides which has traditionally been used to darken or 'antique' silver and
bronzes. This is usually called 'oxidizing' the surface though the process has little to do with oxygen, what
is really happening is that sulfur is reacting with the surface to produce the grays and blacks, producing
in the case of silver, silver sulfides. So if you call it 'oxidizing' as most jewelers do just remember that is
untrue. Most people who make jewelry are quite familiar with its use. Usually a piece about the size of
one's little finger nail is dissolved in a cup or more of warm water. One may shake the jar it comes in to
obtain small flakes which will dissolve quickly. In my opinion more dilute solutions give better control,
repeated dippings and rinsing building up to the desired surface. When I see failures or difficulties in liver
of sulfur applications it is usually because the person used it too concentrated.

The fumes are dangerous and it should be used with good ventilation and covered right after use. It must
not be allowed to come in contact with acids as a toxic gas is then rapidly evolved (hydrogen sulfide). It
decomposes with exposure to light and air and so should be kept in a dark bottle that is sealed tightly. It
is possible to keep for months if poured in hot. As the hot air contracts after sealing and cooling less air
is available to decompose it inside the bottle. I’ve also stored it for long periods in a fridge, though you
would have to label really clearly and use a non-food container if you did so! To obtain black a number
of repeated applications alternated with rinsing and brass brushing with a little soapy water is effective.
A lustrous blue-black to steel gray may be produced on silver this way, and a purplish black on copper.

Painting with the solution on specific areas accompanied by heating the object gently works well. An ex-
cellent black on sterling is obtained by sand blasting immediately before dipping into the solution. (don't
touch it with your fingers-any grease will interfere with an even coloring. This surface is fairly durable,
particularly if gently brass brushed with some soapy water as a lubricant.

Liver of Sulfur does not take well on brass, though repeated applications will give a darkish coating and
tint.. Repeated heating and pickling or the introduction of iron to a pickle solution will coat the piece with
copper which can be darkened. This is good for emphasizing recesses. I had a student who noticed that
the copper plating on the brass occurred where she had painted flux, so it is possible to create a pattern
of copper plating by painting with flux.

This same idea is sometimes used on gold jewelry that has to be 'antiqued'. Because gold

alloys do not react to most sulfur solutions one can take some used pickle solution, place it into a bowl
with the object and (wearing gloves) blot the object with some medium steel wool. This will contact plate
the object and its recesses with copper. Then rinse, use the liver of sulfur solution to darken the plating
to the desired level and buff off the surface with a rouge buff. The darkened recesses will be untouched
by the buffing and so remain dark, everywhere else is bright.

Another way to work with it is to use rubber gloves and hold a small lump of liver of sulfur and draw on
the metal surface with it while it is held at an angle under cold running water. This gives some interesting
effects even on brass.

Charles Lewton-Brain ©️2019 | 18

Again, most people tend to use too much and too strong. Only mix up as much liquid solution as you
need to just cover your object, more is wasteful. put hot or warm water into a glass or Pyrex or corning
ware container. I take my clean object, put it under running hot water (to raise its temperature so diffe-
rential coloring does not occur on the areas to heat up first when placed in the solution), then dip it in
the solution for a moment or two, take it out, rinse and repeat until the darkness you want is achieved.
A brass brushing with soapy water as a lubricant in between rinsings will render a shiny, uniformly dark
metallic surface. By going slowly you have a lot more choice in color, tone and surface qualities.

While it is usually used to obtain gray and black colors on silver and copper there are a number of inter-
mediate interference colors formed, particularly if a weak solution is used. These include yellow, reddish
brown, purple and blue. Some people add a small amount of household ammonia to the solution claiming
it intensifies the lovely blue-green-redpurple interference colors one gets when using a dilute solution
and slow approach. These pretty colors are not very stable over time because they continue to react
with sulfur in the air and darken. You can sometimes 'save' them by spraying an appropriate lacquer over
them. They may be retained if the surface is properly sealed. Acrylic resin is the recommended sealer
for durability and resistance to darkening in light. Some jewelers lacquers also work. Envirotex® works
very well for this. It is usually best in my opinion to continue darkening to the grays and darks which will
last indefinitely.

For grays and blacks on silver one can also react the surface with sulfur compounds to form black silver
sulfide. Plasticine (Plastilina) modeling clay for example contains some sulfur compounds and it can be
used to create patterns of darkness where it has been stuck on in contact with the silver for some time. A
soak in bleach will turn silver a gray color, sometimes with a sheen to it. (Remember never to mix bleach
and ammonia!).

If ammonia from a capful is washed and painted with a brush onto the warmed finished object for a while
over an alcohol lamp flame or hot plate and a drop of dilute liver of sulfur solution introduced to the cap
and the painting continued then rosy colors and others can be created, on the gold.

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