Introduction: Lets Make a Wand

About: I love working with wood. I make bandsaw boxes and just lately ive got a lathe and now enjoy woodturning.

I took part in the wand challenge 2017 with 4 other you-tubers and i had never made a wand before so i was really delighted when i finished this and with halloween coming up i thought id share with you all.

Items used

Epoxy resin Colour for resin

Plastic cups Pearl ex

Pressure chamber Scales

Stir sticks Sand sealer

Gloves Woodwax 22

Air compressor 2 x inch square blocks of ebony wood

Around 8 inches by 1.5 inches of lime HDPE sheets to make the mould

Lathe Bandsaw

Drum sander yorkshire grit

Hot glue gun wood dye optional

bees wax Danish oil

Step 1: Making a Mould

The first thing i did was make a mould to cast the handle part

1) I need the inside of the mould to be 1 x 5 inches

2 I used hot glue to glue parts of mould together (make sure its sealed well so resin does not leak)

3) I put 1 inch square pieces of ebony at each end of mould

All done lets get pouring resin

Step 2: Casting the Handle

Get together items needed

1) Epoxy

2) plastic cup

3) wooden stir sticks

4) colour for your resin i used black, dark gray, light gray and green i also used pearl ex to give colour more depth.

5) gloves

6) scales (because my resin needed to be mixed equal weight)

7) depending on the resin you use you will need to follow your instructions as to how to mix it.

8) I mixed all the resin i needed then split it into 4 cups and added the colours.

9) i poured small amounts of each colour into the mould and rotated through the colours until the mould is full mixing with a tooth pick to mix colours.

10) This can now go in a pressure chamber until the resin cures.

Step 3: Turning Handles

1) Once the resin is cured i turned it on a lathe to shape, i didn't have a plan of the shape i just went with it.

2) I drilled a small hole in one end to hold a dowel that i am going to put on the wand when i get to that (The video will show you more info on this)

3) So i shape then sanded to 600 grit, then used sand sealer to seal the wood and then i used yorkshire grit and last i used a wax to give the handle shine.

Step 4: Making the Wand

Ok using the 1.5 x 8 inch piece of lime

1) I mounted on a lathe to make a dowel on one end the doesnt need to be long as its just for gluing the wand to the handle.

2) Once this is done, in pencil i drew an outline of the shape of the wand on one side

3 I then turned the wood to the next side on the left and draw an outline of the wand giving some slight bend in shape to give a broken twig kind of look.

4) On the bandsaw i followed my lines on the one of the two sides

5 Once cut i used cellotape to tape the two sides back on.

6) I then turn to the second side i put lines on, and cut on a bandsaw

7 ) This left me with a nice twig shape time to sand.

Step 5: Shape the Wand

Now i used a drum sander and shaped the wood not to perfectly round, i wanted it to look like it had been carved. I then sanded up to 600 grit

Step 6: Adding Colour to Wand

1) I used water based stains to colour the wood

2) first i used black all over

3) Once dry i sanded with 400 grit so that you could now see some of the wood

4) I then added brown let dry and added spots of green

5) Once all dry i coated in danish oil and after 24 hours finished with bees wax

6) Time to glue the wand into the handle using epoxy i also made a green wooden button for the other end of the wand i turned this on a lathe this is optional.

All done thank you for more information check out the youtube video.