I just wanted to reply to my own post with the method I finally used to curve my pvc. After doing some reading on some methods people use... such as building a sort of alluminum foil furnace, I found out that USA pvc schedule 40 (I haven't tested any other type) is curvable with just boiling water.
What I did:
I built a very easy to make "mold". This was accomplished by taking a piece of wood at least as long as the curve you want and putting nails into it. You put the nails at each end of the curve on one side and on the other side of the pvc in the middle (these nails determine how much curve you will get) Essentially you just bend the pvc around the nails.
Next just cap one end of the pvc and poor boiling water into the open end. You might want to leave a small/slight leak in the bottom so you can continually add more still boiling water (keeping it hot). You can either wait until the hot water cools or just poor it out after about 5-10 minutes and the pvc will no longer be stretched (for lack of better word) against the nails. It will have taken the form and should come easily out the mold.
The other thing I did with this method was ovaling or flattening the pvc (for better swordlike shape). You do essentially the same thing, though with the addition of another board and some clamps you can tighten manually.
Place the board on the other side of the mold, tighten it down so it wont fall off and poor in the water. Wait a few minutes and flatten it to your desired diameter.
If anyone is interested and would like pictures I can try to take some with my webcam (will be not too great quality, though you should be able to see all the steps). I hope this is useful to someone. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />
-daniel
