Anyone Forge Curtain Holdbacks ?

[GrumpyBiker]

My wife has put in a request for curtain holdbacks as I first project.

I see quite a few in Google photos of them from round bar .

But most are commercial made.

while there seems an endless supply of bottle openers being made how's about these household items?

While I like the round bar stuff has anyone made some from flat stock?

 

examples snagged from the web...

I made these a few years back before I had a Forge & an anvil so I'm hoping the next ones are easier.

using a torch & a vise was a pain.

[Judson Yaggy]

The shop I worked in 25 years ago had a production line of curtain rods and hold backs, it was pretty profitable.  The hold backs were mirror image scrolls of 1/4" round stock (one for each side of the window but scrolled in opposite directions) and curled thru about 2 1/2 revolutions.  Then they bent back to the wall in the usual way (kind of like the second photo but with sharper bends), and we used a rounded set tool to forge little dimples that were then driled for screw holes to give a nice little accent to the wall atatchment points.  I must have made 500 of them in the few years I worked there, but it was long enough ago that I have no photos.  

[Smiddyt]

This is a dragon curtain holder I made for our old house. Need to make some more for the new house 

[VaughnT]

Made bunches over the years, mostly from round bar.  

One of the "gotcha" moments is when you make your first pair and realize there's no way to get a driver in there to run home the screws because you put the bar in the way with your design.

There are a lot of ways to go, though I recommend keeping it as simple as you can if you're going for something that you can sell.  I like simple scrolls, mirrored so they look balanced on the window.  If you're going to make a lot of them, make up a set of sizing jigs and whatnot so you can knock them out one after another and have them looking the same.  Folks might want to buy several pairs at once to outfit a room, so they have to look reasonably similar.  Jigs are your friend!

If you're doing them for your own home, make them as complex as you can do while still keeping them looking good.  There's nothing more important than filling your own home with testaments to your smithing ability.  And don't be afraid of replacing them in a year as you get better.  Always keep your own place in fine fettle.

And don't forget to think outside the box.  One of my favorite is the simple ring style.  You use a bit of decorative rope to lash the curtain to the ring, and the ring is left fully exposed so you can showcase your work.  They can be anything from something simple like a towel ring type, to something super complex and awesome... like this old hitching post ring on a castle wall.

 

[O'connell]

I made these simple ones last summer for a customer. We came up with the design together. He attached them loosely so they swing down when not in use.

[Cannon Cocker]

I like the idea of doing some of these for my own house.  I'm glad that I came across this thread.  I was thinking that it would look cool to do a decorative twist (not sure of the name so I'll describe it and maybe one of you can tell me what it is called!) where you start with square stock and use a fuller to concave the flat sides which draws out the corners so if you were to look at the bar from a cross section it would look kinda like a four pointed star.  After that you twist to your heart's content you've got a cool decorative bar to bend into whatever you want.  In this case one really cool looking set of curtain holdbacks!  Yup, I'm gonna do it!