In the Great Hall of Balintore Castle, which we are currently restoring, there are some surviving cast iron tapestry poles with accompanying finials i.e. shaped ornamental end-pieces. However, perhaps 70% of these are now missing, and we had to find a way to source them.
The poles themselves are easy just 5/8" cast iron rods. I despaired about reproducing the metal finials, until I discovered they were actually turned wood. :-)
I chatted to my builders about how we might replicate these, when Gavin took it on his own back to buy a lathe off eBay.
Last Monday he had his first go on a lathe since woodwork at school. By Monday lunchtime he had produced these:
You can see the original Balintore finial, newly painted grey, on the right hand side. It has to be said that the initial consistency of the finial product was not the greatest. All the turning is being performed freehand.
The finials and tapestry poles were originally painted more of a dove grey, although only limited areas of the original paint survive on the now-rusty rods. We had a grey metal primer in stock which was good enough for the job.
By the end of Monday, Gavin had produced these:
On Wednesday production was in full flow as Gavin cracked sharpening the chisels and I bought him a large set of new ones off Amazon.
The product is now much more consistent, and the just-turned finials have that classic WWII bomb shape.
I love when that "How on earth are we going to do this?" problem turns into a "Let's have a go." solution.
