Gold leaf is the metal itself made into very, very, very, thin foil that should be impervious to ordinary solvents. Whereas the ?gilting? on the pommels seems to have some variables by maker, and how they approached the different base metals used for the fittings. A later period German Army Officer?s saber I had gave me a window into the past because you could see copper plating contrasted with the zinc base metal and the gold over the copper where the different layers of the plating had worn off. The problem for the German dagger makers being that they wanted the gold to contrast with the bulk of the rest of the finish that necessitated a multistep process. Some Luftwaffe swords for example having a so-called ?gilt? Swastika that is actually color anodized aluminum - and my point really being that I look at things on a case by case basis in trying to determine what and how something was done to get the desired result. Best Regards, Fred