Playing around.....

[Bonnie Campbell]

Did the money work this morning. So thought I'd see if I could make a Harry Potter wand. Well, not very good, but I imagine my niece will like it.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I like it too Bonnie! What kind of wood did you use? What's it length and did you use a steady rest of any sort to minimize wobble.

[Bonnie Campbell]

I'm not sure what the dark wood is, some kind of exotic oily wood (bocote, rosewood????). The lighter stuff is pacific yew. It's 13 1/4 inches long. I was going to try for longer, but I don't have a steady rest. So I was pushing it going that long.

[Brett Baldwin]

That's a pretty fancy witch's wand. I hope your niece's conjuring is up snuff.

[Jonathon Spafford]

Beautiful wand! Those things are fun to make and over the course of my 3 year turning career I think that I've turned over 60! Yours turned out really nicely... your niece is gonna love it!

On a side note, although most of my wands averaged about the size of your wand I have turned them up to 16 inches without a steady rest and I have never broken one (although I have abandoned some due to over- thinning and the terrible vibration that ensued). The trick is to make your tools really sharp and turn at the fastest speed possible. I use a skew chisel and I turn with my right hand while supporting behind the cut with my left hand. The wobble obviously varies depending on the thickness... I found that +-1/2" tapering down to around 1/4-3/8" was about right!

If you needed to steady the work and don't want to use your fingers you can make a string steady rest! If you haven't seen one before, here is a digram of what I'm talking about http://www.neowta.com/Articles/stringsteady.htm and here is an article showing how it is used in the making of a trembleur http://www.lavieenbois.com/tournage/trembleur_eng.htm

[Tim Beauregard]

Expecto patronum! That is beautiful.

[Steve Trauthwein]

Not very good? That's a beautiful wand that any sorcerer would be proud to own! The dark wood looks like walnut from the photo.

Regards, Steve

[Bonnie Campbell]

Okay, here are a couple close-ups of the handle. The wood has a almost cinnamon smell to it when turned......

[Patrick Taylor]

I think it's quite good! Better than others I've seen being sold recently.

[Don Eddard]

Okay, here are a couple close-ups of the handle. The wood has a almost cinnamon smell to it when turned......

Very pretty. Cinnamon smell? Any chance it was imbuia wood?

[Bonnie Campbell]

Very pretty. Cinnamon smell? Any chance it was imbuia wood?

Anythings possible if its a heavy oily type wood. I got it in a box of exotic lumber end cut offs. The guy had so much variety he didn't know what half of it was.

[Jon Lanier]

You know, if you stretch that out a bit and change the handle slightly. You'll have light Saber.