Before I start I would like to make it clear, that at least in some of the old books, koftgari is used for what we to day call inlay, as well as for what we call koftgari and for what some authors call inferior koftgari. Although it is not always noted, the surface was always cleaned with limejuice before the gold was applied, and with inlay the channel was left rough to make the gold stick better.
Inlay. The pattern was traced on the steel and engraved with a fine pointed instrument called cherma. Deep channels with undercut margins produced the finest quality of work which was expensive but durable. The metal was heated before the wire was hammered into the channel, forcing the wire into the space where it was required to spread. With the job completed, the surface was polished with agate rubber, mohari and cleaned with limejuice. Sometimes the inlay was filed down to be at surface level before being polished.
Koftgari. The surface was crosshatched with a knife or needle and the patters drawn over it with a hard steel needle, silai. The wire was hammered onto the surface, following the pattern, polished and cleaned with limejuice. In most of these cases the wire was too thin to be filed down further, but sometimes a thicker wire was used, letting the pattern stand in relief.
Mulamma – koftgari imitation, or gold plating on steel. The surface to be gilded was crosshatched or filed and the pattern drawn with a silai over it. Gold leaf almost microscopic thin was then applied and rubbed with an agate, bone or ivory burnisher. It was heated and rubbed again so that the soft gold was evenly spread and fixed to the surface, and the work was cleaned with limejuice.
Gilding was also done by applying and pressing a thin paste of gold and mercury on the steel surface. The application was heated to drive off the mercury leaving the gold fixed to the surface.
Islamic Arms and Armour of Muslim India by Dr. Syed Zafar Haider).
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