© Copyright
Mervyn Passmore 2008
Marblack Slate Blacking Home

In order to brighten up these sombre cases, the makers used to engrave and gild floral patters on the fronts. Over the years polish and grime will have filled the engravings, but there is a 50:50 chance that the gilding will still be intact beneath the grime.

Using a small clock pin in a pinvice, or even just a paperclip end, gently remove the grime in the lines. Do this carefully, avoiding scratching the main surface. You may reveal enough gilding to give an aged but satisfactory look. If insufficient has survived (as in these photos), you will need to re-gild the engravings.

Start by using the pin or paperclip to thoroughly clean the grooves etc. The deeper and cleaner you can make them the easier they will be to work with.



Only a few areas of gilding remain when cleaned out 

To gild the lines, use a fine gilt lacquer such as Liberon's Chantilly. When they are all thoroughly clean, use the clock pin or paperclip end to apply a single drop to the larger parts such as circles etc. Start with hardly any lacquer on the pin. You will find with a little practice that you can apply a drop which will fill the circles etc. If you apply too much, gently remove the surplus with a cotton bud, but don't try too hard to remove all traces. You can do that later.

Apply a drop to each circle with a pin or paperclip 

Use the pin to spread the lacquer wherever you can, but for the fine lines you will need a brush. Any cheap artist's brush will do, but generally it will have too many bristles for your purposes. With sharp scissors cut off some of the bristles, leaving a brush with just a few hairs. Carefully draw the bristles along the lines, to fill the grooves with lacquer.

Using a brush with only a few hairs, draw the gilt along the lines. 

If you haven't made a perfect job of this, don't worry. We can tidy it up later. If you waxed the clock well, the lacquer is not going to want to adhere to the black areas.

Leave the lacquer at least 4 hours to dry. If you have accidental surplus you need to remove, leave it longer.

To remove any surplus gilding, you will need some '0000' gauge wire wool. This wool is so fine it is used by cabinet makers to polish wood. Impregnate a small pad of 0000 wire wool with some wax polish. Gently rub over the gilded areas and it will lift off any surplus, leaving the inlaid gilding untouched.

Now buff up the whole clock case with a soft cloth and admire the result.