Riddle me this: a ringtone for Archimedes' heart?

forget forging and folding when fending off foes. everyone else elicits our expertise, in exercising exacting, exquisite, exertion. I come before steel, and I help hone an edge; before me, things were more fragile.

I move through the night without a sound, Where I step, no footprint is found. Wrapped in shadows, a blade by my side, In the smoke and the silence, I choose to hide. What am I?

buttons sitting beside idle thread, needles dream where cloth is led. a store of old, its name replaced. what is this place for which a tailor will face?

I start with a promise that glitters like gold, Each step up the ladder, a story retold. Bring two, bring four, let ambition ignite, The top grows fat while the base bears the weight. Stones stack on trust, not mortar or grit, Wide at the bottom, but narrow where it sits. What shape am I, built on belief and desire, A monument raised while the many perspire?