Gold leaf is gold that is beaten by hand or machine into extremely thin sheets. The thin gold sheets are commonly used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats  and shades. 23-karat gold is the most commonly used.

With today's modern milling techniques gold leaf is produced that is so thin you can almost see through it. It is so light weight that will float in the air almost like a feather, and it is difficult to grasp with your fingers.

Gold leaf can be produced with modern machine techniques. It will be light enough to float in the air and very close to being transparent. Gold leaf this thin must be handled carefully by a skilled artist.

Gold leaf is sometimes confused with metal leaf but they are different products. The term metal leaf is normally used for thin sheets of metal of any color that do not contain any real Karat gold.

24 Karats is pure gold. Real yellow gold leaf is about 92% pure gold. Silver colored white gold is approximately 50% pure gold.

A common form of Gilding is layering gold leaf over the surface of the object to be decorated, such as wood carvings, picture frames, moldings, and art pieces.

Gold leaf made by hand starts with small pieces of gold that is then beaten with wooden mallets. The result is a large thin sheet. Repeating the process leads to the final product of an extremely thin sheet of gold, or gold leaf.

Gold Leaf typically comes in a "book" of 25 gold leaves. A Gold Leaf "pack" will contain 20 "books" of gold leaf. Of course other sizes can also be available. The gold leaves are cut to book size after being processed to the desired thinness.

Shades of color in gold leaf can be made by alloying the gold with different other metals such as copper, platinum or silver. The material is then processed to the thin, near transparent form of gold leaf.

To apply, or "gild" with gold leaf a special "gilders tip" brush is used. This wide brush with thin bristles enables the artist to move the gold leaf from the gold leaf book to the surface of the item being gilded with the gold leaf. A smaller brush is then used to press the gold leaf into place on the shape of the surface.

Gold has a specific gravity of 19.3, which makes it weigh 19.3 times more than an equivalent volume of water.

It was around 1200 BC that the art of beating gold into gold leaf began to be mastered by the Egyptians.

The government of Great Britain set a gold standard for their currency that once established remained in place for over 200 years.

Pure gold leaf is very soft, so it is usually blended with an alloy to give hardness and different colors. This is true of most jewelry. For gold to be edible it will start out as totally pure gold, but it is then mixed with silver. Both gold and silver are supposedly digestible by humans with no ill effects as long as ingested in reasonable quantities.