Fun with Wands

   I've been distracted the past few weeks. I got a mini lathe for my birthday, and finally got it set up. I've been a wood worker since I was a kid. My dad had a workshop in the garage, and I've found working with wood fairly easy. The second part of the equation is my fascination with Harry Potter wand lore. The rest of the colorful material in the books is ok, but I have a special fondness for Wand lore.
   Taking all this into account, after I got my lathe set up, I had to make my wife a wand. She's wanted a custom wand since she tore through the Potter books like something akin to excrement through a the digestive system of an untamed ornithoid.
   Like anything, you always take a practice run first.

This is a mere 15 minutes of just playing around on the lathe, then some brief half-assed carving. Primitive, but it showed me how easy it was. So I tried something just a little bit more difficult.

 

Where this isn't an exact replica of the Elder wand, I was just trying to work out the method for attaining the basic shapes. Not to mention, basswood practice blanks are really cheap.

 

   Now, having had a couple of practice runs, I felt I was ready to try for something resembling a real wand. My wife likes purple heartwood, and why not, it's purple. It's her favorite color. Some time ago I bought a purple heartwood turning blank. So, here I go... Wait a sec, the blank is just a bit too big, better cut it down so I don't waste valuable wood. My first mistake was thinking it would easy. Purple heartwood is some of the hardest wood I've ever encountered. This stuff is very, VERY difficult to cut. Look it up on the internet, all the opinions are pretty much the same. It finishes beautifully, but getting there is a pain. After great amounts of sawing by hand, I finally got it down to a manageable size and made my wife a wand.

Yes, that is an amethyst crystal set into the end of the wand. I've been holding onto that crystal for years waiting for the right place to use it. Anyway, it's a 12 inch Purple heartwood wand, polished with just beeswax. Not bad for a first attempt, right?
   Keep in mind the whole time I'm working on wands, my wife and I are writing background for our fictional wand shop. Established in 1623 in New Amsterdam, Van Alden's Wand Shoppe has been a purveyor of find wands to the Americas ever since. Marcus Hephaestus Paracelsus VanAlden proprietor.
   Being the gamer that I am, I just couldn't resist turning our conversations into an rpg setting, hence my version of Harry Potter FATE was born.
   Because I enjoy making up my own material, this game would only be set in the Harry Potter universe. Not taking place in England, this would happen in the U.S. of modern times. We had some details scribbled down on scraps of paper, of how the magic culture of America evolved away from the English model. Wizards & Witches often name their wands, and are frequently passed down through generations. Heirloom wands will boost the power of some spells. Many magical families have a certain affinity for certain kinds of magic. You get the point, I started writing yet another game.
   At my office, the woman I share my pod with is also a huge Harry Potter fan, so I decided to make her a wand. I've been buying exotic turning blanks for a few months prior to actually getting a lathe in anticipation of being able to carve wands. For Julie I chose American Holly.

The picture isn't great, but I carved a crescent moon on the end, and the main part is carved to resemble a unicorn horn. Here, we have a 12 inch New World Holly with a Dragon heartstring core.

   So, here I sit on a Friday morning, writing on my blog and getting ready to go out into the garage and turn another wand. I have no idea what this one will look like, I just enjoy playing with my wood. ;-)

 

   I know I'm going to use Rose wood for this one, and I'll give to someone deserving. I was going to give it to whoever answered a trivia question, but I couldn't think of a decent question. So if you tell me why you deserve it, I might give it to you.

 

Happy gaming!