Hello everyone. Well I have always meant for the first posts on here to have videos accompanying them. I have meant to show the workshop first and then get into making things. That hasn’t happened! I have barely dug out my lathe from the quagmire that is my garage right now in order to make a magic wand for my daughters Halloween costume. Then my 7 year old needed a wand as well.
This post, as I said, has no video. Mainly, because I was nearly finished with the wands when I thought, “Hey I should be filming this.” So, I will do better in the future, since this is what I want to do over the holiday season whn I am making all sorts of things.
Anyway, my daughter wants to be a Hogwarts student for Halloween. Not one of the main students, just a random Slytherin because that is what Pottermore.com told her was her house. At any rate, she needed a wand that could take the rigors of school and trick or treating without breaking as bad as her official “Hermione” wand would. I had a small chunk of maple that I was going to use but it would have been very thin, so I cut up an andiroba board that I had laying around.
On a side note, most of the wood that I have I didn’t intentionally go out and buy. The andiroba was on sale at Woodcraft one day so I bought some. Basically, I am cheap and will take all of the deals I can get.
So, when I got a piece of the andiroba cut, it was roughly 1 1/2 square and 16 inches long. I only have a small lathe, but it is perfect for everything I want to do. I don’t want a big lathe for now. I am using a Rikon 70-050 VSM. 16 inches is about the longest that I can secure between centers.
Working through different chisels and then sandpapers, I got the wand shape that I wanted and it was thick enough to withstand and 11 year old. I finished it with beeswax. I have found that beeswax is one of my favorite finishes. I like it for pens, and most everything else. It melts into the wood just using a rag, has very little mess and lasts quite well.
In short, she loved the wand, and then my 7 year old decided that he needed a wand as well. He even came up with a design and showed me exactly what he wanted. For his, I came home from taking them to school, picked up a piece of pine that I had cut for another project that ended up too short, and whipped his out. It only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish. I used beeswax on his as well, but it is harder to see on the pine.
My next project is cleaning out my workshop in the garage, so that I can make, and film, my christmas present projects. Thanks for reading this!