Polishing - one can get a jeweler's "sunshine cloth" from a jewelry store (at least here in the US).
Gold plating - not real plating, but as Cato uses the word. Here is why I hesitate to call it plating. Plating is a 20c invention that places a thin gold film of only a few microns on a surface (thus plating is going out of style in many jewelry stores here in the US). The layers of precious metals Moros used were an actual layer (32 gauge) of material fused to a base metal like brass or copper (more commonly). This is what Cato is really refering to in his book, though I take issue with the term he uses. Again, this was mainly used by the Maguindanao and Maranao. I have actually measured this in the Maranao and Maguindanao pieces I have. The technology is not that difficult because it took only a furnace (or bellows) to heat up the materials together to a point where they would start to fuse before melting. However, this would take precise control and experience. This technique is still used today around the world. "Gold filled" is the closest commercial equivelant in that a thin layer of gold is fused to a base metal of brass. The brass is thicker than the gold, but the gold is much thicker than a film a few microns thin, and that is why it wears much better. The Moro/Indonesian/Malay fusing of precious metal is thicker still, and is more economical than solid thin bands of pure metal. My kris that I posted has the swaasa bands of 32-30 gauge bonded (fused) to a thicker base of copper.
By the way, I just found this picture of a kris hilt with what I believe to be swaasa (slightly different % of gold and copper) that closer matches your piece. It was posted from a fellow formite from the Museo Nacional Antropologia Madrid in Spain.
It is also interesting that we are posting at the same time, especially since it is day where you are at and I am right now on 3rd shift.
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