foil, solid metal that has been reduced to a leaflike thinness by mechanical beating or rolling. Jewellers have long used a thin foil of copper-zinc alloy as backing for paste jewels and inferior gemstones. The colour and lustre of the gems is heightened by foil that has been silvered, burnished, and coated with translucent colouring.
The first mass-produced and widely used foil was made from tin, now replaced by aluminum for nearly all purposes. The reduction of sheet metal to foil is achieved principally through vertical pressure exerted by finishing-mill rolls combined with horizontal tension applied through mandrels paying out and rewinding the foil stock. Backup rolls mounted above the work rolls of the finishing mills provide increased vertical pressure. Finishing mills may be two, three, or four rolls high, depending on the foil width and thickness required. To produce very light gauge (thin) material, two sheets of aluminum may be rolled together, then parted and rewound individually. By rolling a double web, foil is produced that is bright on one side and matte finished on the other. Aluminum foil may be coloured, printed, embossed, bonded to other materials, or coated with a plastic film.