Gold finishing is only learned at the cost of much patience and long, painstaking practice. Although the technical schools teach finishing in a comparatively short time--usually in a few months--only the ground-work can thus be acquired, for it takes years of practice to teach all the technicalities and to make an expert finisher, equal to any calls made upon him.
It may also be mentioned here that in most technical schools the work is executed with the very best and most suitable tools and, furthermore, the whole interior arrangement of the workshop is as favourable to the work as can be conceived, and thus all conditions for good work prevail. When young workers come from such an institution to work under strange conditions, where they have to struggle along with unfamiliar and perhaps unsuitable and antiquated tools, bad light, and other drawbacks, it is not to be wondered at if they--at the outset, at least--do not answer all expectations. Similar inconveniences have less effect upon old and experienced workers, as they have the steadiness and assurance which come to them as the result of long years of work, and they, therefore, never become nervous and fidgety. A cool head and a steady hand are the first essentials in a finisher, and after these the feeling for neatness and exactness.
Gold tooling has evolved from the blind tooling of the 15th century, which up to that time had been the only method of decoration for the exterior of books, excepting where gold or jewels were used. The first application of this method was in drawn lines made by running the heated fillet alongside the rule, and even to-day the fillet, although improved in make, still retains its place as a suitable tool for the decoration of leather backs and sides. Speaking generally, blind tooling is not sufficiently appreciated by finishers, especially in shops doing much hand tooling; to many it is almost unknown, and they would be at a loss if there were any demand for it, and yet it is eminently suitable for simple finishing with slender resources, to obtain a result at once chaste and striking without excessive ornament, and this without a costly assortment of tools and other special appliances.