A 'Whittle' Magic: Carve Your Own Wand (Part 1)

13 min read

Deviation Actions

PraeclarusWands's avatar
Published:
19.8K Views
Artisan Crafts Week



Part 1A: Introduction to Whittling


Finished wand by PraeclarusWands

Greetings, I’m PraeclarusWands and today we will learn how to carve our very own Harry Potter-style wands from wood! This two-part workshop is intended for first-time woodworkers, but experienced woodworkers are sure to benefit as well. Start here in Part 1 to learn the basic techniques of whittling. We'll then use those techniques to whittle the overall shape of your wand. In Part 2, we will carve the details of your design, then sand, stain, and apply a protective finish coat to the wood, enhancing your work and creating a final product you’ll be proud to show off.

Because we will be working with sharp knives in close proximity to fingers, this workshop is recommended for those 15 years of age and older.

Tools and Materials


See Figure 1. We will need: 
Figure 1 - Tools and Materials are pictured
Fig 1 by PraeclarusWands

Wood blank: Go to a DIY or craft store and buy a round (or square) dowel, between 5/8” (1.5 cm) and 3/4" (2 cm) in diameter. Soft woods such as pine, balsa, or basswood are best. It is important that you carefully select a piece with straight grain from end to end. Buy enough wood for two wands so you have extra to practice with, and to serve as a back-up in case you mess up later.

Hand saw (not pictured): You may need a saw to cut a long dowel down to your desired wand length. If you don’t already own one, borrow from a friend or neighbor instead of buying one.

Utility knife: A simple utility knife or box cutter works best for first-time woodworkers and can be purchased at your local hardware store. Your knife should have a locking mechanism and replaceable blades. A fancy whittling or pocket knife is not required, but if you own one feel free to use it. However, it is your responsibility to sharpen it regularly. Sharpening will not be covered in this workshop. Recommended for experienced woodworkers only.

Sandpaper: You will need a minimum of three sheets, each one in a different grit. “Grit” is a measure of coarseness. Lower number = coarse, higher number = fine. I recommend something in the ballpark of 150 grit, 320 grit, and 600 grit.

Wood stain (optional) and Varnish: If you want to color your wand, there are many options available: water-based stain, oil-based stain, gel stain – so many choices! Similarly for varnish, there are many types of finishing material, each with its own pros and cons. These will be covered in part 2.

Others (not pictured): For safety, you will need something to protect your hands while carving, a dust mask for sanding, and plastic gloves for staining and finishing. You will also need basic tools like pencils and a ruler.



Safety


CAUTION!! Woodworking is NOT a risk-free craft. PROJECT EDUCATE AND PRAECLARUS WANDS WILL NOT ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR INJURIES YOU MAY SUSTAIN BY FOLLOWING THESE TUTORIALS. If you follow the rules below, you will minimize your chances of injury. Disregard them at your own risk.

  • Always protect your hands.
  • Always cut AWAY from yourself. Avoid cutting towards yourself if at all possible.
  • Always keep your knives sharp and take note of what is in the path of the blade.


If you need help or advice at any point in this series of tutorials, post your question(s) along with a photo of your current progress in the comments so that everyone can benefit from the answer.


Whittling Basics: The “Push Cut” and the “Stop Cut”

Without further ado, let’s get started!

First, clean out a well-lit ventilated workspace. Cut your dowel with the hand saw if necessary to make two wand-length blanks. You’ll use one for practice now and save the other one for later (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Prepare two wand-length blanks.
Fig 2 by PraeclarusWands
Got your wand blank? Got your knife? Good – that’s all you need for now. We will start with a simple Push Cut. Hold your knife in your right hand and the blank in your left. (Apologies to lefties – please mirror all L/R directions.)

Extend the blade to about 2 cm and place the edge, facing away from you, against the wood at a shallow angle. Brace the back of the knife with your left thumb and push it forward, guiding the knife with your right hand (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Demonstrating the Push Cut
Fig 3 by PraeclarusWands 
Did the wood shaving peel away smoothly, or did it get stuck and tear? Tearing occurs when you carve AGAINST the wood grain. For best results, always carve WITH the grain. Your shavings will peel away smoothly (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Carving WITH the grain
Fig 4 by PraeclarusWands

To carve the areas that go AGAINST the grain, flip the wood around and carve from the opposite direction. You’ll find that the areas that were AGAINST the grain before are now WITH, and vice versa (Figure 5). By flipping the wood around, you can carve WITH the grain for a stress-free whittling experience. 

Figure 5 - Flip the wood around to avoid tearing.
Fig 5 by PraeclarusWands

Practice the Push Cut until you are confident, and observe how the grain affects the way your shavings peel away. We will use the Push Cut to carve the shaft of the wand and some parts of the handle.
Let’s move on to our second cut: the Stop Cut. Begin by starting to do a Push Cut, but stop before the shaving completely peels away. Disengage the knife, and cut the shaving off from above (Figure 6). This cut will give you a defined edge that we will use for the handle of the wand in Part 1B below, and in Part 2 to carve the details.

Figure 6 - Demonstrating the Stop Cut
Fig 6 by PraeclarusWands
If at any time you feel your knife doesn’t cut as well as before, change blades (or break off the used section). Once you are comfortable with both the Push and Stop Cuts, you are ready to start carving your wand!






Part 1B: Carving Your Wand's Basic Shape



Step 0: The Wand Design

Experienced woodworkers are encouraged to create their own original design. First-time woodworkers are encouraged to use the design below and follow along with the tutorial. Adjust the proportions of any part of the design to suit your personal taste. Use a pencil to mark out the main sections of the design onto your second dowel (Figure 7).

Figure 7: The basic wand design mapped out onto the dowel
Fig 7 by PraeclarusWands


Step 1: Rough-Shaping the Shaft


Now that we’ve got a design, let’s get carving. Use the second, untouched dowel you prepared. One of the big challenges of hand-carving wands (as opposed to turning them on a lathe) is carving a straight shaft, without bumps or curves. In order to accomplish this, we’ll use a multi-step process that I developed:
First, on the end of the dowel, draw 90° cross-hairs through the center (Figure 8a). Next, use a ruler to extend each cross hair down and parallel to the length of the dowel (Figure 8b), creating guidelines that mark out four faces. Use the Push Cut to plane down each face (Figure 8c) until you end up with a square cross section (Figure 8d).

Figure 8: Rough down the shaft by carving along guidelines.
Fig 8 by PraeclarusWands
We’ll repeat this to carve the shaft down further. Use your pencil to mark the mid-line of each face, and as before, use the ruler to draw a guide line down the center, along the length of the blank (Figure 9a).

Figure 9: Repeat to further thin down the wand shaft.
Fig 9 by PraeclarusWands

Push Cut to plane down the corners (Figure 9b) and create a new, smaller square cross section (Figure 9c). You can repeat this process as many times as you like to thin down the shaft to a diameter of your liking. Remember – you can never replace wood once you’ve carved it away. Better to under-do than over-do.



Step 2: Rough-Shaping the Handle

Once most of the shaft’s excess wood has been carved away, we can turn our attention to the handle. Let's start with the main concave section. Use a pencil to mark the boundaries of the curved area. Then, mark the middle where the curve is the deepest (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Mark the concave section
Fig 10 by PraeclarusWands
Next, starting from the edges and carving in towards the center, use gentle swooping Push Cuts to gradually create a concave curve down to the middle (Figure 11), remembering to carve WITH the grain as often as possible.

Figure 11: Carving the concave section
Fig 11 by PraeclarusWands

To do this, your left thumb controls the pressure while your right hand controls the knife angle. At the start of the cut, apply light pressure with your left thumb. As the knife moves towards the middle, your left thumb increases pressure and your right hand maintains the angle between the knife edge and wood. When the knife reaches the middle, keep the left thumb pressure constant while decreasing the angle. Finally, release your thumb pressure and allow the wood shaving to lift away like a normal Push Cut.
When you’re finished, the handle should look something like this (Figure 12). The general shape of the wand is coming together! Now, let’s move on to defining the handle ring and pommel, and rounding out the shaft.

Figure 12: Finished carving the concave section
Fig 12 by PraeclarusWands



Step 3: Carving the Handle Ring and Pommel

Let’s start with the ring. From the edge of the concave section, do a Stop Cut to the edge of the ring (Figure 13).

Figure 13: How to start carving the ring
Fig 13 by PraeclarusWands

Do this all the way around on both sides of the ring: the handle side and the shaft side. When you’re finished, it should look something like Figure 14a. Next, shave down the edges of the ring to round it out (Figure 14b). Repeat these steps (Stop Cut to ring edge, then Push Cut to round it out) until you are happy with the depth and size of the ring.

Figure 14: Rounding out the ring
Fig 14 by PraeclarusWands
Now we’ll move on to the pommel. On the end of the dowel, mark the center with a pencil. Use the Push Cut to carve from the edge of the concave section towards the center until you reach the pencil mark you made. Repeat all the way around until the pommel becomes pointed (Figure 15).

Figure 15: How to carve the pommel
Fig 15 by PraeclarusWands

You may end up carving against the grain here, and that’s ok.
Congratulations! The handle’s basic shape is complete.



Step 4: Rounding Out the Shaft

In this step, we will turn our shaft’s square cross section into a circle. First, draw a guideline down each face as before. This time however, when you use your Push Cut to plane the faces down, do NOT plane down far enough to touch your guidelines (Figure 16a). The goal is to make an octagonal cross section instead of a square one (Figure 16b).

Figure 16: Create an octagonal cross-section
Fig 16 by PraeclarusWands
From here, shave down each corner until your cross-section is round (Figure 17). The key to this kind of carving is long, light cuts. Maintain a shallow blade angle with your right hand and keep the left thumb pressure consistent.  

Figure 17: Use long, light cuts to shave down the corners
Fig 17 by PraeclarusWands
Step back and admire your work so far! You should now have in your hands something that looks like a wand. Hopefully you’ve picked up on how the simple Push and Stop Cuts can be used in combination to whittle a variety of shapes. We’ll continue in Part 2, and give our wands a bit of personality and detail.

Part 1 end by PraeclarusWands





Comments16
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
TheKhavar's avatar

Absolutely awesome! Great attention to detail!