Have you ever wanted to be a wizard like Harry Potter? Magic-ing open doors and levitating your friends, to engaging in fierce wizard duels with Death Eaters? Of course you have! Well, every good wizard worth his salt has to have a proper magic wand. You won’t need to fork over 30-40 galleons or labor away with sophisticated equipment to get one either. It’s very easy to hand carve and craft your very own authentic looking Harry Potter style magic wand out of realistic materials, a few simple woodworking skills, and only spend between $5 – $10!
With the recent release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in theaters, my boys found a new fascination and love for the series. It only naturally progressed into wishing to be young wizards like Harry Potter for Halloween. So while my wife toils away behind a sewing machine stitching up their Hogwarts cloaks, it was Dads job to help accessorize. I did some research on what it would take to either buy them magic wand replicas or craft one for them. Replicas, while looking very authentic and fancy, cost as much as $30 or more. They were often hand turned on a lathe, claimed to have a magic core element, and come with certificates of authenticity. No way I was going to pay that times two for a Halloween costume, which would likely end up in a more swashbuckler style duel and become broken anyway.
The tutorials to make your own magic wand that I was able to find were severely lacking in cool factor, and took just as much effort and time as the way I settled on. These tended to be rolled paper bonded and adorned with hot glue. Like I said, not very cool. After some brainstorming and a trip down to the local major retail craft store I developed a plan. It would involve hand carving the shape of the wand and then painting and finishing it. To some this may sound difficult, but I assure you it really isn’t. And it honestly doesn’t cost much money at all, especially if you happen to have any of the materials on hand already.
So here is my step by step procees for creating your wands, with pictures and a materials list.
IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: This project involves the use of a sharp knife. Please have an adult assist and supervise or perform this step for you! Remember to always cut in a direction away from your body and anyone else, and be mindful to keep your hands and fingers out of the cutting area. Be sure to also wear safety glasses as wood pieces will tend to go flying. Remember this, a knife by itself, when used properly and carefully is not dangerous. Only when someone becomes careless or cocky do bad things happen!
Materials you will need:
Wooden dowel rod: I got this at the craft store for about $0.50. Choose one in a thickness of ½ to ¾ of an inch.
Craft Paint: One of the areas of the project where you can be creative and individual. Select a wood like color of your liking. If the color you desire isn’t available, think of colors you can mix together to attain it. For example, on one of my sons wands I wanted a deep dark brown. I used a bit of brown, black and red to get the desired color. Buy the small bottles of the acrylic or enamel craft paint, cost is about $2.00.
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Craft size paint brush: Any foam or bristle brush from the craft store will do. They are very inexpensive, about $1.00 each.
A good sharp knife: Almost any kind of knife will do, except for kitchen. Something like a Swiss Army, small hunting or a whittling knife would be perfect. I prefer one with a good comfortable grip.
A hand saw: Used for cutting your dowel to wand length. Either a hack saw or a back saw works just fine.
Piece of Sandpaper: You won’t need alot, this project only involves some light sanding. About a 220 grit would work well.
Safety Glasses: You don’t want to risk eye damage. Whenever working on a project like this, just wear the safety glasses!
Optional-Sealant/Finish: This isn’t absolutely necessary, but if you want the finish of your wand to look more brilliant, and hold up to those fierce duels, it’s a good idea. I used some semi-gloss polyurethane I had. But you can choose anything similar in any finish you’d like. You can find this in small half pint cans for about $5. Go for water based for easy cleanup, just use soap and warm water.
Now for the fun part!
Step One: We start by cutting our dowel rod to wand length. An authentic wand length can be anywhere between 8 and 16 inches. It is entirely up to personal preference. Personally, I think the general size of the wands’ future wizard or witch should be taken into account, meaning a long wand might seem disproportionate to a smaller person, or vice versa. Whatever length you choose, take note, and when describing your wand tell it’s length proudly! Use the hand saw for this, and cut it to length.
Step two: Once your wand is cut to length, grasp it at one end and feel for how much of the uncarved rod feels comfortable. This part will remain uncarved and be the grip section when it is finished. When you are comfortable with it, take your knife, and holding it at a slight angle to the wood, apply an even but not overly firm pressure and push it down the rod away from you. 
If done correctly, the blade will dig in slightly and take a strip of wood with it. The dowel is soft wood, so it should shear away rather easily.
Continue carving down your dowel, rotating it a little every cut to keep the rounded shape. As you go you will notice flat spots and ridges. Try to flatten out the ridges to keep the shape more or less round, and not geometrical. Remember, we are going for a tapered shape, meaning the wand will get thinner as it nears the tip. It will carve pretty evenly though, so when one area reaches a thickness you like, choke up and hold higher up on the wand, starting your cuts further down. This can take a little finesse to get it the way you want, but remember, every wand is unique and has it’s own character. It could be rather thin, or fatter. It could be slightly crooked or uneven. Be creative, there is no wrong way! When done it should look something like this:
Step three: Now the wand could use a little bit of sanding. Using your sandpaper, sand the whole wand until you’ve smoothed out any of your cuts or the ridges that are left. This shouldn’t take very much, but once again, it’s a matter of preference. Smooth it as much as you’d like. Wipe the dust away when finished.
Now using the sandpaper again, we want to round out the tip. We don’t want it sharp. Hold the wand near the tip and rub it against the paper, turning it and working it at all angles until it is rounded and smooth.
Now turn the wand over and do the same for the grip end. Here we just want to smooth the hard edge down.
Step four: Now we can paint our wand. Put a small amount of your paint on a paper plate or in a plastic cup. If you are going for a custom color, use your brush to mix the different paints together until you have the color you like. Hold the wand at one end and start painting. Leave a bit at the end unpainted so you have a place to hold onto and rest it. This paint dries pretty fast, so you won’t need to wait long.
Once it’s relatively dry, finish painting the other end and set it aside to finish drying thoroughly. Should take about 15 minutes or so. Here is another chance to creatively make the wand unique. A few ideas include painting some gold colored highlights, or dark shadows. Maybe you’d like bright colored racing stripes, or if you are a good painter, perhaps some flames. It’s all up to how creative you want to be! When you are happy with the painting, then that’s it, you are done! But I strongly recommend doing step five.
Step five: Here is where we seal the paint and wood. I used a semi-gloss polyurethane, but a polycrylic or varnish etc. in any sheen, would work great. Just go for water based because it’s easily cleaned up with soap and warm water. Using the same technique from when you painted the wand, lightly brush on your finish. Use long flowing brush strokes and don’t over brush it, or it will show in tiny bubbles or brush marks.
Set the wand aside to dry. Place it on something that won’t get stuck to the finish when it dries, or it will probably end up within the finish. This finish is usually pretty fast drying also, but be sure and let it dry completely.
That’s all there is to it! All steps in this project took about an hour to complete with drying times. Depending on what you needed to purchase, it could of cost as little as $5. Now you have an authentic looking, real wood Harry Potter style wand ready to cast your spells and duel the forces of evil!
If you enjoyed this tutorial, or have any great tips to improve on it, please leave a comment and share it! Thanks for reading and happy spellcasting!
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I want to say – thank you for this!
Impressive! Any HP fan would be proud to have his own, even if it’s not exactly made by Olivander! Thanks for joining the Make it from Scratch Carnival! –Katie