How Paper Boxes Are Made / A practical and instructive book telling how the beginner may manufacture all kinds of paper boxes, with special chapters on the printing department for paper box plants, embossing, gold-leafing, label work, etc.

by Robert F. Salade

GOLD LEAFING FOR BOX WRAPPERS

Gold leafing for printed designs on box wrappers may be done with the aid of a platen press as follows:

First, a special size, made especially for gold leafing, is required, and this size can be obtained from any of the leading printing-ink manufacturers. This size is used on the press in the same way as size for bronzing.

The gold leaf layers, as they are called in the trade, work on a table arranged near the press on which the printing is being done. As the printed sheets are laid on the table, single sheets of the gold leaf are “shaken” from the books containing the gold leaf, and the leaf is laid over the printed detail so accurately that all parts of the printed design are minutely covered. When one sheet of gold leaf is not large enough to cover all of the detail, another sheet is used to complete the work.

After the gold leaf has been applied to the wrappers, some workers employ a common clothes wringer in making the gold leaf adhere firmly to the printed detail. The wrappers are simply run through the rollers of the clothes wringer under heavy pressure.

Loose portions of the gold leaf are not rubbed off the wrapper until after the printing is thoroughly dry.

Another method of making the gold leaf hold firmly to the size is in running the wrappers through the printing press after the leaf has been laid. In this case, a quantity of blank sheets of news or book paper are essential. The wrapper containing gold leaf is again placed in the press, close to the feeding guides, and over the detail, or gold-leafed design, a sheet of the blank paper is spread. An impression of the form is then taken on the blank sheet, causing the gold leaf to press firmly to the size. This is said to be the best process for gold leafing with the aid of a platen press.

After running the gold-leafed sheets through the rollers of a clothes wringer, or for the second time through a printing press, in the manner described, loose portions of the gold leaf are rubbed off the sheets with a piece of raw cotton.

In gold leafing of this class, the wrappers are usually embossed after the gold leafing has been done, producing a beautiful effect with the detail of the subject standing up in bold relief.