Wand making

[Exodus]

Hello all, with all the Harry Potter madness, I thought I would try my hand at carving some wands. Any tips on wood carving, wood type, where to get exotic woods? I'm pretty new at wood carving so any direction would be terrific. Thanks!

 

[LogansRunner]

Honestly I just carved mine with an exacto knife, and with various tips on my wood burner. I used a dremel also to help get the shape for the more organic ones like a Voldemort wand. I'd watch out if you use a woodburner though, one time when i was using the knife tip it got caught on somthing and ended up sliting my thumb open at the tip, not very fun.. Oh yeah I also use bondo on them too, helps with shapes like the bone part of a vold wand, etc.

 

[LizardJedi]

I'm auctally interested in this as well. I like the organic, rooty twiggy type of wants, not the perfectly symmetrical, lathed wands (which is odd for me, but whatevers)

I know you can get some wood at Woodcraft but other than that, I dunno.

I'd be in for the Noble ones even, but the idea of a resin wand kind of bugs me.

Hope to see what others have to say.

 

[shuktuki]

well first of all always use a sharp knife
more accidents with blunt blades than sharp
but other than that just be careful and enjoy
heres a wand i made no lathe involved carved by hand
its not from any of the films
but i like it

 

[Kadajiroth]

Wouldn't it be cool to carve Voldemort's wand out of real bone, now that I'd like do if I had the skills and resources.

And nice wand, shuktuki!

 

[shuktuki]

thanks its made from oak
and by the way carving bone stinks
if you use a dremmel it smells like burnt hair
yuk

 

[Exodus]

I'm auctally interested in this as well. I like the organic, rooty twiggy type of wants, not the perfectly symmetrical, lathed wands (which is odd for me, but whatevers)

I know you can get some wood at Woodcraft but other than that, I dunno.

I'd be in for the Noble ones even, but the idea of a resin wand kind of bugs me.

Hope to see what others have to say.

Yeah, I picked up the Harry wand from Noble and I guess I just never realized that it would be resin. It's a nice enough piece but I figured that I could make a nice one myself with a little bit of work.

 

[Aegis159]

Yeah, I picked up the Harry wand from Noble and I guess I just never realized that it would be resin. It's a nice enough piece but I figured that I could make a nice one myself with a little bit of work.

Well then you should try to replicate the Harry, Ron and Hermione wands from PS and COS since those were the original wood ones.

 

[Exodus]

Well then you should try to replicate the Harry, Ron and Hermione wands from PS and COS since those were the original wood ones.

Are they using the resin ones in the later movies? Any hi-deg screen caps of the wands from the first 2 films? or any of the films actually?

 

[Serenity]

Are they using the resin ones in the later movies? Any hi-deg screen caps of the wands from the first 2 films? or any of the films actually?

Try the Mugglenet.com Galleries. They have a lot of good HP movie screencaps.

http://www.mugglenet.com/gallery/

Also, in the first (and maybe second) movie, isn't Harry's wand a standard, symmetrical wand, unlike what it looks like from POA onward?

 

[donsolo]

The two I made were just from a regular wooden dowel shaped with files and sandpaper, then stained. :thumbsup

 

[Exodus]

Those are very nice looking. Where did you pick up the wood from?

 

[jakob2121]

Here's one of mine (one of my first ones). I've got a few others as well. Sculpy over a dowel. For my oldest son's fourth birthday, I got the privilege of making custom wands for 10 kids. This was one of the designs.

 

[donsolo]

Those are very nice looking. Where did you pick up the wood from?

Just a hobby shop - it was some cheap dowel I had in the closet already. Nothin fancy.

 

[Exodus]

Nice, I'll have to make a stop tonight after work. Picked up a carving knife yesterday so I'm all set, at least I hope so. I've been looking at some blocks of wood on the internet and ebay and I honestly was ignorant to all the different types of coloring that were available, and not to mention how expensive some of the pieces were.

 

[shuktuki]

Exodus (mmm reminds me of mork and mindy)
dont go for a really hard wood it will deter you
i usually use white ash but that is still quite hard
your best bet is to talk to someone at the shop where you buy it
they will have more knowledege about this
but you wouldnt go far wrong with hazel or hawthorn
they are both easy to work but firm enough to take detail
hope this helps

 

[Exodus]

Shuktuki, thanks for the advice! You're right, if this is going to be hand carved hard would definitely would not be good, especially for a first timer. I figure if I get dowels from a hobby store they should be ok to work with. Is holly a softer wood? I'm going to try to carve out an exact replica of Harry's, down to the wood that it's supposed to be made out of! I'm drawn some other designs that I think would be nice but would probably be much easier down with a lathe. But I'll test my small amount of skill and see how it will turn out.

 

[shuktuki]

according to all the info i can find its close grain and hard
also can have a lot of knots in the wood
because of this long pieces are sometimes hard to come by
and its colour is white to a pink tone
sounds hard to carve by hand but a dremmel might be a good choice
which harry wand are you doing
the original or the new one
the original would be easier as you could fit a thick enough
dowel into a drill and turn it that way if you had to
hope this helps cant wait to see pics

 

[Exodus]

I think I would try the original, I would want to make it all out of wood and the new one looks like I would need a pretty close match for the handle. I would have to do some searching in a nearby wooded area to find sometime close. Maybe on Saturday I could go for a walk, I could use some fresh air and exercise!

 

[shuktuki]

cool post pics as you progress