Silver is a very ductile and malleable metal, slightly harder than gold, with a white metallic gloss that can be highlighted by polishing. It has the highest electrical conductivity among all metals, even higher than copper, which is on the other hand, widely used due to its lower cost.
Silver is stable in pure air and water, but it tarnishes when it is exposed to ozone, to the hydrogen sulphide and to the air containing sulphur compounds.

This material is so ductile and malleable to achieve leafs about 0.25 µ thick (0,00025 mm). There are a lot of gilding techniques with the silver leaf: from the most ancient called "Guazzo" that is water gilding, to the most recent ones with water based glue (water based mission) and "fat glue" (fat mission). As already said, the leafs are sensitive to humidity in presence of polluting sulphur agents; we recommend to store them closed in their original package, away from direct sunlight at room temperature (recommended 18-23 C°).