Blacksmith Project – hand forged Christmas gifts

My brother and I had not used our forge for several years and we were anxious to light it up again. Earlier on we had used it in a corner of the machine shed but the forge and workbench had been dismantled and stored since then. It took about a day of cleaning out manure and spreading it on the fields before before we could set up the forge.

In the past we used coal from various sources but it was mostly power plant coal or other fairly dirty grades. This time I bought some blacksmith coal from a supplier in MN and brought it down to Iowa. This coal was very nice to work with because it was so much cleaner and produced a lot fewer clinkers than any coal we used previously.

I produced a curtain hardware set. It has wall hooks with curled hooks and a twisted section across the top. The curtain rod ends are split with curls pointing up and down.

I made it for Emily’s apartment in Minneapolis, MN and it will cover a window with this view. It should look pretty nice with a linen or similar curtain material. Maybe Emily will send a photo when it is mounted and the curtain hung?