The best method pre-Old Sheffield was mercurial plating, where a mixture of precious metal powder silver in our case, but more famously, gold and mercury was applied to the surface of an object.
On any item formed out of a cylinder of metal, such as candlesticks, pots, vases and so on, the metal was joined together by crimping or dovetailing.
The foreman counted their output so that they could be fairly rewarded at the end of the week.
This did not prevent other firms from producing very fine sticks in addition to other objects.