Fire gilding is sometimes called inlaying although it is a substantially different process and closer in resulting look to that achieved with overlay and koftgiri techniques. It is also referred to as mercury-gilding for reasons explained below. Gold or silver is mixed with mercury to creat a thin paste, or amalgam. This is pressed on to the base metal which is then heated to drive off the mercury. The precious metal then remains firmly attached to the base. Fire gilded designs wear well as long as they are protected from abrasion since the precious metal layer is very thin and can wear off if rubbed.
"Fuming Off" the mercury in fire-gilding
European weapons and armor were routinely decorated using fire gilding since the result is a bright and lustrous design. The practice goes back at least to Roman times. Any size object may be gilded using the fire-gildiing method.
