That point of view of Minor Magical Focus: Swords limited to affecting swords, and not to put anything into swords, sounds legal to me since Minor Magical Focus are supossed to be as narrow as a Te + Fo combination, but I thought that it would cut down the abilities of Verditius sword makers... so there it goes, a Verditius Swordsmith.
The concept would be "the light-saber-maker", I guess... I only detailed his virtues and XPs spend until gauntled, assuming a later life period of 4 years between childhood and apprenticeship.
Characteristics: Int +3, Per 0, Pre -2, Com 0, Sta +1, Str +1, Dex +2, Qik -1
--A high Int is mandatory for lab totals, and he needed a decent Dex for Crafting totals.
Virtues: The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Affinity with Ability x 2 (Magic Theory, Craft: Swordsmithing), Affinity with Terram, Elemental Magic, Puissant Ability x 2 (Magic Theory, Craft: Swordsmithing), Puissant Art: Terram.
--The idea is that as he will only be able to affect swords and swords are Terram, it will be nice to be able to turn them into other things. Elemental Magic will let him invest any MuTe(Au), MuTe(Ig), MuTe(Aq) effect ignoring the requisite score, and thus focus his Arts into Terram.
Abilities at Gauntlet: Artes Liberales 1, Awareness (swords) 2, Bargain (swords) 2, Brawl (dagger) 1, Charm (potential buyers) 1, Code of Hermes 1, Craft: Swordsmith (long swords) 5 + 2, Dead Language: Latin 4, Folk Ken 1, Guile 1, Native Language 5, Magic Theory (enchanting swords) 4 + 2 [1], Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 1, Organization Lore: Verditius House (Initiations) 1, Parma Magica (terram) 1, Philosophiae (verditious runes) 3, Profession: Swordsmith (weapons maintenance) 1, Single Weapon (long sword)
--Pretty straight abilities. The +1 in single weapon is to test his own product. It's pretty low compared with any decent swordmaster out there, but with his own product on his hand that wouldn't be too much trouble.
Arts at Gauntlet: Cr 0, In 0, Mu 8, Pe 5, Re 6, An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 1, He 0, Ig 0, Im 0, Me 0, Te 10 + 3 [1], Vi 1
Later life: just after Gauntlet he should try to get the inner Verditius Misteries Items of Quality and Verditius Elder Runes, and Philosophy to raise his score to 3, thus being able due to his speciality to get the full +4 S&M bonus from swords, and then establish a neat lab somewhere (let's assume an Aura of +5), and work in the lab to install a Greater Item (a Forge, +3 bonus) with the Greater Focus flaw (+4 bonus, -1 to general quality), which would give him a +6 bonus for his swords. That could take a total of 3 years. After that he can start focusing on getting XPs in other Techniques and probably raise his Single Weapon if he gets into the kind of troubles you can cut and slash your way out.
Spells: 120 levels during apprenticeship, probably InVi spells to recognize and measure Vis, and Terram spells that can be helpful in the lab.
After that, let's say he can roll and make a pretty neat sword of Quality +3, turn into a Item of Quality, getting the +4 bonus to harm stuff.
Then he enchants it and embeds into it the Elder Runes of Muto and Terram, which will add +10 to any invested effect, but compensate even at this point. His Lab Total for MuTe with any elemental requisite would be:
Swords Muto Terram Lab Total: +3 Int + 7 Magic Theory + 5 Aura + (8 Muto x 1 + (1 Minor Magical Focus + 1 Verditius Elder Muto Rune)) + (13 Terram x 1 + (1 Verditus Terram Rune)) + 8 Craft: Swordsmith + 6 Lab Modifier = 79.
So first embeded effect: Blade of Zeus. MuTe(Au) 58: Turns the blade of a sword into a lightning wich does +25 damage to anything it hits. Being a lightning, it cannot be parried by other weapons, nor parry them (later embedded effects will probably deal with this inconvenience). The sword still needs to strike its target to deliver the damage. (Spell Base 10, +2 Affecting metal, +1 Conc. for a total Base Level of 25) + 5 Item maintains concentration + 5 24 uses per day + 14 for Penetration (+28) + (5 x 2 for Elder Runes adding difficulty) = 58, and he can invest this effect in 3 seasons of work. If he waits another handful of years improving his Muto and improving his lab he could try to get the penetration higher, in case a client wants to go dragon hunting.