Harry Potter Wands

Harry's wand is made from holly. It's 11" in length and has a phoenix feather as its magic core. Ollivander describes Harry's wand as "nice and supple."

According to Celtic lore, holly has applications for protection, luck, healing, as well as death and rebirth. Harry's holly wand is quite a contrast to Lord Voldemort's yew wand. Yew is poisonous and symbolizes death.

The feather used in Harry's wand came from a phoenix that gave only one other feather. The second feather resides in Lord Voldemort's wand.

Gary Hall of Whirlwood is probably the closest thing we muggle-types have to an Ollivander. He makes the most beautiful wands. Most of them are made from a solid piece of hard maple wood, so you'd have a hard time breaking one. He goes all out with the presentation, too. Each wand comes in a velvet sleeve inside its very own special box.

My husband and I each have a Whirlwood wand. His wand, the Potions Master, is beautiful and solid. It's like handling a large wooden chess piece. Mine is the Sister, a more delicate wand. I love them both.

You can expect to pay at least $35 and up for a Whirlwood wand. But considering what you're getting, I think that's a bargain.

Visit Whirlwood Magic Wands

If you want a quality wand that's slightly cheaper, you might want to see what Alivan's has to offer. Their wands are made from hard woods and aren't far off from matching the wands you see in the Harry Potter movies.

Alivan's website is fun, too. There's a whole section about proper wand care, which is entertaining to read.

If a decent wooden wand is what you're after, try poking around at Alivan's.

The Noble Collection has the advantage of being well-known. The Noble Collection catalogs are always full of beautiful products inspired by movies like Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, and of course Harry Potter.

Previously, I said that Noble Collection does not make accurate replicas of Harry Potter wands. I now have to take that statement back. It's true that the wands look nothing like the ones you see in the first two movies; however, the actors have very different wands in the third movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. For instance, Hermione started out with a dark, smooth wand with a nearly white handle; in the third movie, her wand is light-colored and has vine designs carved all over it. Some of the wands offered by Noble Collection aren't that far removed from the wands in this movie.

In any case, the wands you can buy from Noble Collection are official Harry Potter wands. If you want a wand that's more than a toy, these wands are worth looking into.

The only real problem with these wands is that they are cast in resin, so they are much more fragile than wooden wands. While that's fine if you only intend to display your wand, I wouldn't use a Noble Collection wand as part of a Harry Potter costume.

If you were a wizard or a witch, what sort of wand would you have? Would it be made of holly, oak, ash, or perhaps willow? Would its core be a unicorn hair, or dragon heartstring?

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