Gilding metal is a copper alloy, comprising 95% copper and 5% zinc. Technically, it is a brass.
Gilding metal is used for various purposes, including the jackets of bullets, driving bands on some artillery shells, as well as enameled badges and other jewellery.
Famous quotes containing the words gilding and/or metal:
“There is no gilding of setting sun or glamor of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmers’ wives.”
—Hamlin Garland (1860–1940)
“And, indeed, is there not something holy about a great kitchen?... The scoured gleam of row upon row of metal vessels dangling from hooks or reposing on their shelves till needed with the air of so many chalices waiting for the celebration of the sacrament of food. And the range like an altar, yes, before which my mother bowed in perpetual homage, a fringe of sweat upon her upper lip and the fire glowing in her cheeks.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)