I do the preliminary forging on the standard anvil using 4oz. to 1lb. hammers. The finish work is done at the jewelers bench on a 6" round, polished face anvil. The hammers used are from 1oz. to 4oz.. The rough profiling is done on a Wolf 1X10" belt grinder ( my mini-KMG) and the rest is by hand with files, stones, and papers. HT is done with a magnet and by eye. Quench is normally water. I loose one now and then, but in these thinnesses cracking is normally not a worry. Most of these swords are quite sharp. I leave the blades a sort of matte finish, as polishing such small things seems to blur the details and also doesn't look right in general. All hardware is assembled as if it were full size....threaded tangs and pommels, slotted and soldered guards, drilled out and fitted hollow handles, etc.
The gold handle on the red gold dagger is wrapped in two different twists. It starts with a two-tone twist and then changes to a yellow twist, and finally back to two-tone. It is done by hand, and I agree, it came out really nice. The ends of the different twists are welded together. The bolster and butt collar are angle-notched so the twist comes off them without a gap.
