Real Gold Leaf Sheets (Genuine 12k–24k)

Loose Gold Leaf

In loose leaf books, each of the 25 sheets sits unattached between its own pair of tissue pages. You take the leaf out with a gilding knife or tip it onto a gilder’s cushion, cut it to size if needed, and lift it onto the surface with a gilder’s tip. Loose leaf is what professional gilders use for water gilding and for detailed work on carved or uneven surfaces, but it takes some practice because the leaf is extremely light and moves in the slightest draft.

Transfer/Patent Sheets

In transfer books, each sheet is lightly pressed onto a slightly larger piece of tissue paper. You can cut the leaf to shape with scissors while it’s still on the tissue, place it leaf-side down on the sized surface, and rub the back of the tissue gently with cotton wool to release it. Because the tissue holds the leaf in place, transfer leaf is easier for beginners, better on flat surfaces, and the usual choice for gilding outdoors or anywhere with air movement. For exterior work we recommend 23.75kt or 24kt.

Which Karat Should I Choose?

The karat tells you how much of the leaf is pure gold; the rest has added silver/copper alloy, which change the color and make lower karats prone to tarnishing.

Quick guide: for anything outdoors or meant to last decades, choose 23.75kt or 24kt. For indoor work where you want real gold at a lower price, 22kt–23kt is the sweet spot. Choose 12kt or 18kt when you specifically want a paler tone, and plan to seal it.

What Can You Gild With Genuine Gold Leaf?

With the right adhesive size, genuine gold leaf bonds to wood, glass, metal, stone, plaster, ceramics, paper, leather, and fabric. Use an oil-based size for outdoor work and a water-based size for indoor projects, since it’s ready sooner and stays workable longer. For step-by-step instructions, see our guides to gilding on glass, gold leaf on metal, and how to apply gold leaf.

Decorating food? Choose our edible gold leaf, which is produced and sold separately for culinary use.

How Real Gold Leaf Sheets Are Made

Gold leaf is made the same basic way all over the world. In fact, this same technique goes back thousands of years with the main thing to change being the technology employed for this process. It’s a slow, precise process with several stages:

1. Alloying: Pure gold will be melted and small amounts of silver and copper will be added to create an alloy. The ratio of silver to copper sets the leaf’s color: more silver makes it paler, more copper makes it warmer and redder. More silver is lighter whilst more copper will be redder. Following this, the alloy will be moulded into gold bars.
2. Rolling: The gold bars will be rolled slowly multiple times. Each time, the gap in the roller becomes more narrow to make the gold even thinner until it is a long gold ribbon.
3. Weighing And Cutting: The gold ribbon will then be cut and weighed to ensure it is the correct size.
4. Preparation And Beating: Around five hundred or so of the gold pieces are arranged between black paper sheets in an interchanging pattern. Following this, it is taken to the beating machine where the gold is hammered even thinner.. This process will be repeated five times, with the paper being changed before each beating.
5. Quality Control: Of course, at each step, the gold is checked for any defects but just before the gold is ready for cutting and packaging, samples of it will be checked again more thoroughly.
6. Cutting And Packing: The gold will be placed between sheets of tissue paper and bound into books of 25. After which it is then ready to be packed between two sheets of tissue paper. Twenty-five of which will be packaged together in a booklet.

How to Tell If Gold Leaf Is Real

Search “gold leaf sheets” on any marketplace and you’ll find packs labelled “24k” for a few dollars. Many of them are imitation leaf made from copper and zinc. Here’s how to check that you’re buying real gold leaf sheets.

1. Check the karat and the composition

Real gold leaf is sold by karat, and a serious supplier can tell you exactly what’s in it. If a listing says “24k gold foil” but gives no gold content, or its description says “imitation” anywhere, it isn’t real gold. Every karat we sell is listed below with its gold content.

2. Feel the thickness

Real gold leaf is around 0.1 micron thick, hundreds of times thinner than a sheet of paper. It’s so light it moves in the slightest draft, and it breaks apart into dust if you rub it between your fingers. Imitation leaf is noticeably thicker and holds together when you handle it. If a leaf is easy to pick up with bare fingers, it’s almost certainly not gold.

3. Compare price by area, not by pack

Gold leaf uses very little gold, but it is still gold. One book of 25 real 3 1/8″ sheets covers about 1.7 sq ft and typically costs around $90–130. A pack of 100 large sheets covering 20 sq ft or more for under $20 can’t contain real gold at that price. Small real sheets do exist cheaply, so always work out the cost per square foot.

4. Watch for tarnish

High-karat gold doesn’t react with air or moisture. Real gold leaf of 23kt and above won’t tarnish, and 22kt strongly resists it, even outdoors. Imitation leaf contains copper and zinc. Unless it’s sealed, it darkens or turns green, typically within months to a couple of years.

5. Look at the sheet size and format

Real gold leaf is traditionally sold in books of 25 sheets, each about 3 1/8″ (80mm) square. It comes as loose leaf between tissue pages or as transfer leaf on tissue. Large 5½″ (14cm) sheets sold in packs of 100 or more are the standard format for imitation leaf.

Real Gold Leaf vs. Imitation Gold Leaf: What’s the Difference?

Not all gold leaf is real gold. Imitation gold leaf, sometimes called Dutch metal or composition leaf, is made from a copper and zinc alloy designed to mimic gold’s colour at a much lower cost. Genuine gold leaf, by contrast, is actual gold (12kt to 24kt) that’s been hammered into ultra-thin sheets.

The difference matters most over time:

• Tarnishing: High-karat genuine gold leaf (22kt and above) doesn’t tarnish, so it keeps its color and shine indefinitely, indoors or out. Lower karats contain more silver and copper and should be sealed. Imitation leaf always tarnishes, typically within months to a couple of years unless it’s sealed, because copper and zinc react with air and moisture.
• Karat marking: Genuine gold leaf is always sold by karat (12kt–24kt), reflecting its actual gold purity. Imitation leaf has no karat rating, because it contains no gold.
• Price: Genuine gold leaf costs significantly more than imitation, because you’re paying for the gold content itself, not just the finish.
• Best use case: Because it won’t tarnish, genuine gold leaf is the standard choice for outdoor gilding, restoration work, and anything intended to last decades. Imitation leaf is a practical, budget-friendly option for indoor decorative or short-term projects where longevity matters less.

If you’re not sure which you need, our imitation gold leaf range is worth comparing directly against the karats on this page before you decide.

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