squares of gold are beaten until they have expanded to the outer edges of the four inch square cutch. The gold is taken out of the cutch and each piece is cut into four pieces with a knife. Using the pincers, these squares of gold are put into a second packet called the shoder, which has approximately 1,500 skins. The shoder is beaten for about three hours until the gold has expanded to a five-inch square. Packaging The gold is taken out of the shoder and placed on a leather-covered surface. The gold is thin enough now that the cutter can simply blow on it to flatten it out. Using a wooden implement called a wagon, the gold is quickly cut into four pieces and immediately placed in a packet called a mold for the final beating. The wagon has sharp cutting blades, traditionally made from malacca cane (rattan). The mold contains 1,500 pieces of gold. Before the mold is filled with gold, the skins are coated with a gypsum powder. This process prevents the delicate gold leaf from sticking to the skins. The mold is beaten with an hammer for three to four hours until it has been beaten into a circle about in diameter. The finished leaf forms an unbroken sheet of gold with a thickness of approximately . After the leaves are taken out of the mold, they are conventionally cut into a square and packaged in tissue-paper books containing twenty-five leaves. See also Metal leaf Mosaic gold Tin(IV) sulfide References External links Gold Beating sections from 1903 American Library Edition Of Workshop Receipts Vol5 by Ernest Spon Goldschlägerstadt Schwabach (in German) partly illustrated history of goldbeating Gold Beating 1959 and Gold Beating Out Takes 1950-1959, two British Pathé newsreel clips depicting the goldbeating process Gold Metal forming de:Goldschläger fr:Batteur d'or it:Battiloro ja:金箔#製造工程