Gold can be hammered into steel without heat or solder — ChillScroll

A blackened steel box inlaid with fine gold and silver flowers and vines

Gold can be hammered into steel without heat or solder

Damascening decorates hard metal by pressing softer gold, silver, or copper into grooves or a rough crosshatched surface. The inlaid metal is then smoothed until it sits neatly against the steel.

The steel gets a tiny gold garden and remains completely serious about it.

Source · The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗