Need Help Making Harry Potter Elder Wand & Resurrection Stone

[a438980]

This is my very first post to the RPF, so please be gentle for my first time.
My goal is to make a few props for personal displaying purposes and one of my projects is trying to make an authentic (or as authentic as I can) Elder Wand from Harry Potter. I live in central Texas and have been trying any way I can to find Elder wood, which the wand (not the movie prop) is made out of. I'm dead set on the wand being made of actual Elder wood but no one seems to actually sell it and I don't know where in my area to look for these trees (since they're apparently growing in my county). What's especially frustrating is that the wood I need will need to be the heartwood of the tree (the dark middle area you see in stumps) due to how hard the wood will need to be. Branches have a soft pith to begin with which makes that part too weak to work with in addition to the areas around the pith being too flimsy. I'm also on a budget so I can't spend $50 on an elder wood walking stick shipped from overseas to just cut it down to make a wand.

Anyone have any ideas?


Also, I'm working on making a Resurrection Stone replica based on the prop from the Harry Potter Films. I'm planning to make a mold and cast half of it in a translucent black-tinted resin, then putting the Deathly Hallows in the center somehow, then casting the other half of the stone in the same tinted resin so it looks like one whole with the symbol in the middle. My local hobby store only has colored dyes for the resin, which won't work since I need it to look like a blackish tint. Has anyone had any experience just using black ink from a pen in resin casts, and does anyone have a good suggestion on an inexpensive way to get the symbol in the middle so that it looks like a translucent stone with just etching in the middle?

 

[a438980]

Re: Need Help Making Harry Potter Prop Replicas

These are the images I'm working off of to try to make the resurrection stone itself. Not going to bother with the ring at this time.

 

[sonicfreak04]

for the elder wand

but for the bone in the middle of the wand I recommend using air dry epoxy putty and sculpt the bone details and runes into it then paint and distress

 

[a438980]

I appreciate the suggestion, but unfortunately I don't have a lathe. Also, for more authenticity I'm planning to mostly shape it by hand, although I'll break out the dremel for the detailed rounded holes and the curved spots at the base. The main issue I'm running into for the wand, at this time, is just finding a way to get elder wood without spending way too much for something made out of elder wood to be shipped to me that I'm just planning to re-shape anyways.
For the stone, I am a little nervous about two parts of that build: getting clean, straight lines for the symbol I'll need to etch and how to give it a clean, uniform look when I need to put the two halves of the stone together. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I'm hoping to have it end up looking like a single stone with a symbol inside of it instead of two resin halves glued together.

 

[a438980]

So I've done some recon in my area and may be able to get some elder wood sometime soon, but does anyone have the dimensions of one of the replicas?

Also, for making the resurrection stone out of resin does anyone have any suggestions how to make a kinda blackish translucent tint to the resin?

 

[Angus Mesmer]

I don't know where you live, but over here - France - elder ( is quite widespread in the wild, but not the wood that would fit the project best.
Considering that it's Rowling, we're talking Sambucus, the elderberry tree, not the box elder, which would be too American.
The look of the wand seems to confirm that, white in the middle with thick bark.
However, that look isn't practical with real elder wood.
The core of the branches is filled with pith, and thin branches are mostly pith. You would probably need to work with the wood from one side of a rather thick branch.

 

[a438980]

Hey Angus, getting the right wood is definitely turning into the hardest part of this project. Although the branches of the Sambucus do have that pith, the heartwood of the Sambucus is supposed to be pretty hard and pith-free. I've tried contacting various elderberry farms, since they grow the Sambucus plants, in the US but no one seems to be willing to sell or give away the wood itself even though they do confirm that they regularly cut back larger pieces of the plants. I wish I could just buy some dowel rods of Sambucus somewhere.

 

[Spawnreaper]

I am also planning to make an elder wand. And of course using real Elder wood. I am also thinking of building a core into it.

I do have a question about the ruins. Maybe you guys can help me?
Now from what I found is that these are Anglo Saxons runes. It's rumored to say "Cheat Only Once" yet when I look at the runes on the wand I can't make that out. I did find a Anglo Saxons runes alphabet chart, but that does not help much. I hope someone could explain the rune design.

The reason why I am interested in the makeup of the disign is that I want to design my own wands and incorporate runes in them.

 

[Rnmld91]

I've actually tried to make my own resurrection stones over the years as it's one of my favorite props (and fortunately, the smallest), however I've made mine from stone and glass. I would highly recommend using these materials if you're planning on going the extra mile to give it a more beautiful and realistic feel.
It's not as difficult as you'd think; I use cheap diamond cutoff wheels on a dremel, and also I have a slightly larger one I use on the drill. They're quite easily available online.
I've worked with obsidian, glass and even smokey quartz (which I know isn't exactly black, but it gave it the translucent feel I was looking for) after another user's thread inspired me to use it.


The brownish one is the quartz, and the one in the middle is made of a combination of clear glass and obsidian. Unfortunately I've since lost this one However I do like how the Hallows symbol is slightly visible through the transparent glass top half. I was planning on refining this one to make it clearer, but oh well... And the one on the right is the first one I ever made, and is pure obsidian, but with a slight crack which I super glued back together. The crack wasn't intentional, but I think it ended up working out as the stone is supposed to be cracked anyway. I achieved a slight polishing effect using high grit sandpapers (600 - 1200) glued onto cut off wheels, which isn't ideal but is a good enough temporary solution.

Regarding the Elder Wand, though, I can't help with the elder wood because it just doesn't grow where I live, so I do apologize! I'd probably stick with cutting down a cane to make it. I've done basically the same with a large ebony club that I bought so I could make a Snape wand out of it.

 

[ATL Kenobi]

There is this "Elder Wand, Hand Carved Elder Wood Stick, Sacred Wood, Ritual Magic Tool, Wiccan Pagan Druid Rites, Elderberry Wood, Sambucus Canadensis" from ETSY, perhaps your best bet. I gave some thought to doing this very same thing years ago and considered gluing some box elder wood pen blanks end to end to get the length that would be needed. I eventually bought a hand carved HeirofOlivander wand and sort of abandoned this project.

ATL