evidence: The making of silver foils The procedure of converting a lump of silver into a thin foil needs extremely skilled hands, reports Sumitra Deb Roy. [...] The procedure of converting a lump of silver into a thin foil needs extremely skilled hands. Firstly, there is a book made of American papers, also known as synthetic papers. Thereafter, strips of thin silver are placed inside the pages of the book and put inside a pouch, which is then hammered till the desired thinness is achieved. For instance, a one-inch thin silver sheet is manually hammered for at least two hours and converted into about 13-inch long foil.