Wands Made With Epoxy Resin - No Lathe

This project was inspired by Peter Brown who made a hidden forest wand on his YouTube channel. I thought it would be neat to try and make something similar but instead of making the resin clear I wanted to add some color. I was hoping that it would almost look like the wands were glowing with power. I don't know if I achieved that specific effect but I am happy with how they turned out.

3/4" x 3/4" x 14" wood

Bench

Vise attached to Bench

3lb. Hammer

1" x 30" belt sander

Parchment Paper

Duck Tape

Epoxy Resin

C clamp or Hand Screw Wood Clamp

Pigment Powder

Disposable Mixing cup and Stir Stick

Razor Blade

Sand Paper Various Grits up to 600

Small Round File

Clear Acrylic Spray Paint

I looked through my scrap pile and found some walnut that was 3/4 x 3/4 inches square. The pieces was about 12 inches long. You don't need a long piece of scrap a short 6 inch piece will work just as well.

I was originally going to try and replicate the "hidden" forest look. When going for this look you want to break the wood so that it has a lot of interesting edges at the point of fracturing. So I chucked my scrap walnut in my bench vise and gave it a good whack with a 3lb. hammer. This took a couple of good whacks until it snapped. The only real thing to consider here is to make sure you tighten the vice really well and you also make sure that the broken piece is at least 3-4 inches long so make sure to mount it in the vise with enough wood protruding out of the bottom of the vise so you end up with a long enough piece. A longer piece will work as well but I think 3 inches is as small as you want to go.

*A note about the hidden forest look, I didn't end up going for this look in the end because I realized that if I used clear epoxy I would end up with a lot of bubbles since I didn't have a pressure pot at the time. The cracked wood still works though because it allows for better adhesion to the epoxy resin.

With pieces broken I used my 1x30 belt sander to round over the edges as best I could. To get a decent result I just keep turning the wood as I apply pressure to the sander. Eventually all the edges are smoothed out and the handle starts to take shape. It is far from a perfect cylinder but that doesn't really matter. There is more sanding to come.

Next I cut some strips of parchment paper that are wide enough to create a cylinder all the way around the walnut handle. I used clear tape to seal off the edge of the parchment paper. Nothing really sticks to parchment paper so here you are really just creating a seal by wrapping the clear tape around it self several times making sure to overlap. You want to make sure you wrap the tape around multiple times to prevent any leaks. Basically here you are creating the mold for the epoxy. You can make it as long or as short as you like, I think I made mine about 10 inches long so with the wood handle I will end up with a wand that is 12-13 inches long. Remember to leave some room for waste on both the wood side and epoxy side.

So this part is a little tricky but it can be done. I used a piece of 3/4" electrical conduit that had lying around, you can use a wood dowel or a piece of PVC, as the form for my parchment paper mold. I slip the conduit in to the parchment paper cylinder then I use some duct tape to seal the seam running length wise on the parchment paper. I then turn the piece over and apply another strip of duct tape to the opposite side completely encasing the parchment paper cylinder mold in duct tape. With the conduit still in place reinforcing the shape I make sure to squeeze the duct tape all around to get good adhesion. For extra security you can apply more pieces of duct tape and make sure to extend the tap all the way down to the wood, this will also help prevent leaks. Once I am happy with the duct tape application I remove the electrical conduit.

Now its time for epoxy! I use a clamp to hold the wand up vertically. I mix my epoxy per the instructions and I add some blue metallic powdered pigment. I don't know how much to mix so I just guess. This epoxy has a decent working time so if I under estimate I can just quickly mix some more.

When adding powdered pigment make sure you use enough powder. A good way to check that is once its mixed scoop some up with your stir stick if you can see the stick through the resin then you might want to add more pigment otherwise it may come out slightly translucent.

Once I was happy with the color of the epoxy I slowly pour it in to the mold. I ended up making two wands as you can see from the last picture I had to tape a wooden dowel to one of the molds because it had started to sag.

Also I didn't mix up enough epoxy to completely fill the second wand so I mixed up a small amount of epoxy with a white metallic powdered pigment and topped off the second wand. I figured the two colors might give an interesting effect.

I let the wand cure overnight and then used my razor to cut off the parchment paper and tape.

Now it was time for shaping. So here is where you can get really creative. I used my 1x30 belt sander to taper the wands. As I push the wand through I am twisting it at the same time. This can create a sort of spiral or fluted effect. I just keep repeating this motion over and over until I get the wand to look how I want. I even use the belt sander edge to make some deep grooves in one of the handles. The great thing about making these is that there is really no wrong way to do it. You can make them as thin or as thick as you want.

Next I used various sandpaper to sand the wands up to 800 but 400 grit is probably good enough. I also used a needle file to create a single flute on one of the wands. Once I was done with sanding I wipe down the wands with a paper towel and alcohol.

Next I sprayed a few coats of clear gloss acrylic on the wands. Once the dry you are done and ready to cast your spells!

Here are a few pics of the finished wands, I really like the way the metallic powdered pigment gave the wands an iridescent look. And I especially like the way the white and blue epoxy mixed to create a gradient of sorts. This was a fun and fairly quick project. I hope you found this helpful and hopefully inspire you to make your own.