Wand of Witchfire: Session 1

The 20-inch block of Gabon ebony I acquired for the Wand of Witchfire was heavy and dense. Much heavier than other ebony I'd crafted into wands. Those pieces of wood, while heavier than locally-found branches, were not difficult to work with. I was able to sand away their surface rather quickly to find the shape of the wand within, although the resulting sawdust was always silkier and more like powder. I thought it was just the block's length that gave the Gabon ebony the extra weight but as it turns out, the block is just super dense, unyielding and hard on hand tools.

I started out with a fresh mandrel and sanding band.

The first thing to do was round down the corners. I started the Dremel at a high speed, 35,000 rpm, and shaved down about an inch worth of the first corner on one end, then rotated to do the next corner and the next, etc, until after about half an hour I was at the one-quarter mark.

I hadn't even removed that much wood, maybe an eighth of an inch on either side of the rounded corners, and the fresh sanding band was already giving me trouble. The heat of the high rpm and the pressure was causing the rubber of the mandrel to soften, which caused the band to begin slipping up and down, which meant the exposed rubber underneath would melt into the hard wood.

Slowing the Dremel to about 80% speed seemed to help but it was already too late for the mandrel. The ruined upper and lower edges of the mandrel couldn't properly grip the band and soon I had to fetch a second new mandrel and sanding band.

After another hour of concentrated rotation sanding, I was just shy of three-quarters the way done, and my hands ached from holding the heavy wood.

Still so much further to go. It took me another hour and half to reach the last two inches of the wood. I started at 2:30 in the afternoon, it was now almost 5:45, and I was beat. I didn't need to trim the last two inches of the block, anyway, because I did not yet have a plan for the tip of the wand. According to its description, a large sapphire was embedded in the tip. I decided to wait until I had the exact stone in hand.

Before I was done for the day, I used 100-grit sandpaper to smooth the sanded wood. My fingers ached terribly but holding sandpaper was much easier than gripping the Dremel and twirling the 1.5-inch block of black wood against its pressure. After 10 or 15 minutes, I switched to the 120-grit sandpaper, and was surprised that it dug deeper into the wood than the courser grain. This was exactly what I needed to happen, as the Dremel and the sliding sanding band had left some deep scars in the wood.

As I switched again to the 180- and then 220-grit sandpaper, the fine layers of black silk-like sawdust peeled increasingly easily away until the rounded surface was smooth and slick. I had even managed to taper the shape toward the end.

I could give up now and still have a hefty club for my collection.