Fire poker props

We've been spending some time with community theater lately, as my daughter went back to her former high school to be the director for their play this year (a Sherlock Holmes mystery/comedy that went very well, we were sold out for 2 of the 3 performances) - now she's decided to do another play over the summer with cherry-picked students. I'm just on the side-lines, as help for costumes and props - which in this case means I apparently need to figure out how to produce 16-20 fire-pokers.

Real ones would be heavy, dangerous and expensive - so I'm thinking wood dowels with fleur-de-lis style curtain finials on the ends painted black might work.... not sure about the handles. Maybe the local wood working shop will have some turnings that would be the right look. Hmm...