My daughters are rabid Harry Potter fans.  All of them, without exception!  This all stems from my oldest daughter, Alexa.  When the first book came out in ’97, she read it and was immediately hooked.  I swear, looking back, there were times she’d mutter spells under her breath when she was mad, but I didn’t know what “crucio” meant.  She kept telling everyone who would listen how great the books were, but the other kids were younger and didn’t seem to care.  The second book came out and Alexa was all over it!  It was about then that the mainstream media had picked up how successful the book was and the hype machine started in full swing.  By the time the third book was released, I’m pretty sure that I was one of the only adults in the Midwest who hadn’t read (or started to read) at least one of the books and my other kids were behind the same eight ball.

Alexa had a remedy.  Since my ex-wife and their mother had decreed we would be driving out of state every weekend, everyone was subjected to a three hour car ride on Friday night, and a subsequent three hour car ride back on Sunday night.  Alexa decided that she would start with the first book and read the story to her siblings.  Being trapped in the same car, it would have been rude to turn up the radio or to try to talk over her, so we all sat – in three hour chunks – listening to her read.  She was really into the story and for a jr. high student, she was phenomenal.  Hell, for any grade, she was phenomenal!  All of the characters had their own voice, she read loud enough so the front seat could hear over the engine noise and loud enough the back seat could hear without removing their seatbelts and leaning over the seat.  She even controlled the pace of her reading so it sped up during the really exciting parts and slowed down during the more dramatic moments.  That first Friday, by the time we got to Missouri, the first three hours had passed, yet we all sat in the car, quietly listening, as she finished the chapter she had started.  There began the routine:  Alexa would read, everyone would listen, when we arrived, we’d either finish the current chapter or go through another chapter if the story was at a critical point.  The trip home was largely the same, except since it was usually very late, all reading had to be done by the time we hit the driveway.  With each new book release, the routine would be revived and the drives seemed to go by much faster.

Flash forward 20 years or so and Alexa is still a fan, teaching her fiancé and their son all of the subtleties of the Potter universe and pointing out the glaring differences between the exceptional books and the so-so movies!

Then, she posted on Facebook about an event they would be attending.  It was a full emersion type of evening at a local bar, where patrons were encouraged to create their Harry Potter universe character, dress up in full – Hogwarts house appropriate –  costumes, consume special drinks made for the occasions (butter beer, Polyjuice potions and the like), compete in wizarding games, and answer trivia.  As soon as she saw the event, she started upgrading their current costumes.  (Yes, she has current costumes!)  Here’s the thing, though:  Wizards need wands!  Anyone can go on Amazon and buy one of the replica wands from the movie, but that would mean you’d be walking around with someone else’s wand, not your own.  Really, do you want to be the 15th person to whip out the elder wand and try to stupefy the waitress?  People have also tried to DIY their own with dowel rods or some other Pintrest hack, but that just looks kind of amateurish and the rest of their costumes are spot on!  I figured I could help her out.  Maybe it’s just because I like to see her smile or maybe it’s a very belated thank you for making all of those hundreds of car rides bearable, but I figured I could use the skills I have in wood turning and wood carving to make something “better”.

My first thought and attempt was to make the wand part out of colored resin, with something suspended inside the epoxy, like a dragonheart string or a unicorn tail hair.  Then, that piece could be set into a handle, making a cool looking wand that was in the appropriate house colors.  Great idea, right?  Well something we terribly wrong with the epoxy process and this was the result of the Slytherin wand.  Even casting a “Stiffinup Viagris” spell won’t help this one!

I went to plan B.

The neighbor across the street took down a tree that was growing next to their house and piled all of the branches in the street.  I liberated a few that were fairly straight and about two inches across.  I put the branches on the lathe, turned some kind of handle on them, then tried to get as much of the wood off the wand as possible.  For those not familiar with turning, these wands are 18″ long, and the slowest my little lathe goes is 200 RPM.  Even at that (relatively) slow speed, as wood is removed, the wood will start to flex in the middle, like a jumprope.  Eventually, I took the wands off the lathe, then finished up sanding everything “freehand” on the belt sander.  Added a little color (Black dye and black enamel paint for the Slytherin wand and Danish Oil for the Ravenclaw wand) then added a resin insert into the handle just to show off the house colors.

These ended up being extremely light and somehow I managed to balance the weight of the handle pretty well against the length of the wand.  I think I’m pleased with the way these came out and hope they like them.  I also hope the mailman doesn’t accidently shake the box wrong and end up casting an inadvertent Sectum sempra spell on some unsuspecting passerby.  It could happen…