These are, in essence, the same as craft degrees worked elsewhere.
All brethren wear fencing swords. The Wardens knock their hammers on the pommels of their swords, not on the tables, as tables for the wardens were a later day additions to the Lodge furniture. They used to stand in earlier years. Both the Wardens sit in the West, and perambulation is unknown, as nobody should walk into the triangle formed by the WM and the Wardens.
After the candidate has taken the oath of the first degree, he is initiated as a Masonic Knight, a very typical feature of the SwR. He is led to the Altar a second time, and the WM gives three blows on the compasses pointing at his heart, while the Master of Ceremonies holds a ‘Blood Chalice’ filled with red liquid under the ‘wound’ of the candidate. He is told that his blood has been mixed with the blood of his brethren. The chalice is also called the ‘Unification Chalice’. It reappears in the 10th degree, and completes and closes the circle of Degrees. In old times (before AIDS) this symbolic act was made real in the 10th Degree, when the candidate is cut in the finger and gives his blood into a chalice of wine.
The EA apron is a simple white apron, and a silver unpolished trowel on a white leather strap on the lapel. The FC has a white apron with three white levels on it and a silver polished trowel suspended on a white silken band with a cross-shaped ribbon. The MM apron is white with a light blue rim. And three light blue levels on it and a golden trowel on a light blue silk cross-band, and a key made of bone on a narrow blue collar.