Chapter Four
The Master Wandcrafter
Saturday July 1
An ominous sign was posted outside the doors of the ministry of magic;
Until further notice the following departments are on Temporary Furlough
Furloughed employees will be paid at 1/3 their normal rate via automatic vault transfer. This will be reviewed again in four months.
Offices of the Minister for Magic *** Specifically Excluded From This Notice
*Administrative staff (Financial Services) (Furlough)
*Administrative Staff (All undersecretaries) (Furlough)
Department of Magical Law Enforcement Divisions
*Auror Headquarters *** Specifically Excluded From This Notice
*Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office (Furlough)
*Underage magic tracking (Furlough)
*Wizengamot Administration Services (Furlough)
Department of Education
*Testing *** Specifically Excluded From This Notice
*Standards Development (Furlough)
Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes Divisions
*Accidental Magic Reversal Squad (Furlough)
*Obliviator Headquarters (Furlough)
*Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee (Furlough)
Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures Divisions
*Beast, Being, and Spirit Divisions (Furlough)
*Goblin Liaison Office (Furlough)
*Pest Advisory Board (Furlough)
Department of International Magical Cooperation Divisions
*International Confederation of Wizards, British Seats (Furlough)
*International Magical Office of Law (Furlough)
*International Magical Trading Standards Body (Furlough)
Department of Magical Transportation Divisions:
*Apparition Test Center (Furlough)
*Broom Regulatory Control (Furlough)
&Floo Network Authority (Furlough)
*Portkey Office (Furlough)
Department of Magical Games and Sports Divisions:
*British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters (Furlough)
*Official Gobstones Club (Furlough)
*Ludicrous Patents Office (Furlough)
Of the three hundred full-time ministry workers (excluding the fifty Wizengamot members) two hundred and eighteen were out of work. Though several dozen hadn't been seen for several days.
… - ...
The three flew into Logan Airport in Boston and were driven to Salem, some twenty miles up the coast. Their mentor, Daryl Whitehorn graciously picked them up at the airport, and drove them to their accommodations at the Salem Inn, which was within easy walking distance from his shop.
As they had been fed on the jetliner, he suggested, "Perhaps a short walking orientation and a very early dinner would be in order."
They walked for a mile, looking at the buildings. There were people of all ages out walking, jogging, riding their bicycles, as well as a steady stream of cars going by. Every once in a while. one of the bikers would wave.
Hermione asked, "How far are we from the Salem Witches Academy?"
Daryl replied, "We've been walking through it for ten minutes."
Hermione tried to do a quick mental comparison and asked, "How many students are enrolled?"
Whitehorn replied, "Just over, 3,500 this last semester. About two thirds of them are in the undergraduate school – ages 10-18 usually. The rest are enrolled in one of the graduate programs. There are fewer students enrolled for the summer sessions, I'd guess 800 or so."
"Best school in the world, my arse." muttered Harry.
"Here we are," said Daryl. He put a key into the lock and opened the door, turned on the lights and said, "Welcome to my little workshop."
… - ...
Harry looked around for a moment and remembered the first time that he stepped into Ollivander's shop. His was dark, cluttered and smelled like old people. Daryl's workshop looked like a well-appointed cross between the school woodshop at Stonewall High that he'd seen, and the neighbor three doors down from Uncle Vernon who worked as a home-based gunsmith. The floor was white and gray terrazzo. There was a row of six workbenches; each outfitted with wood clamps of varying lengths, a shop light overhead and a set of quality hand tools neatly organized on a pegboard. Next to the pegboard was a shelf with pint-sized Mason jars and brushes. There was also a small whiteboard with several markers and an eraser next to a ventilator fan.
Each workbench had a height-adjustable swivel shop stool. They looked very comfortable. On one of the other walls were neatly stacked blocks of cut wood. There appeared to be fifty different varieties. Some of the blocks looked freshly cut; others appeared much older. The other side had machinery that Harry recognized as a drill press, lathe, band saw and a belt sander. Next to the band saw were three closed doors that were either closets or other rooms.
"Great shop," remarked Harry, who was developing an eye for quality equipment.
"Thanks," replied Daryl. They went to one of the other rooms which contained six comfortable looking overstuffed chairs, similar to what Dan had in his TV room. He'd called them Lazy Boys. There was also a large white board on one of the walls next to a refrigerator, a Mr. Coffee coffee maker and a microwave. There was a rectangle finished oak butcher block table with six chairs. He opened the refrigerator which was full of dozens of various bottled beverages – Sam Adams, cream soda, root beer, Orange Crush, 7-up, Pepsi, lemonade, ice-tea and bottled water.
Along the walls were a continuous row of posters. Each had a picture of a mature tree, a life-size picture of a leaf and a description of its qualities. Beneath the poster was a block of wood from the tree that could be examined and picked up.
Daryl said, "Help yourselves whenever we're in here. Welcome to the Salem Academy. It's not just for women; the school went co-ed about a hundred years ago and never really changed the name. It was founded in 1740 – recent compared to Hogwarts." He handed them each a business card, It read Daryl Whitehorn and had his cell phone number beneath his name.
Emma thought that he looked like the actor, Jeff Bridges who, according to the People magazine that she'd read on the jetliner was currently making a movie, The Big Lebowski. He had longish swept-back hair, shaggy goatee, wore a rumpled shirt, expensive denims and a very comfortable looking pair of doe-skin moccasins. One minute he looked to be in his late 30s, the next he displayed characteristics of a man in his late 50s.
He said, "So I might as well ask; I was given your names by one of the executives at the London Gringotts who made the arrangements. That said, what brings you here?"
The Grangers glanced at Harry and nodded. Emma suggested, "Full disclosure."
Harry said, "The dark lord, Voldemort killed my parents when I was a toddler, in a deliberate attempt to kill me. It didn't work out like he planned and he lost his body."
Daryl thought, It sucks to be you.
Harry continued, "The short of it is a few years ago, he tried several times to come back. With help and a lot of luck, I managed to stop him twice. He tried again a week ago and succeeded. We fought again and he and all of his followers died in their effort."
They sat in comfortable silence for half a minute and Daryl replied, "I knew of him. He killed my brother in 1979. He must have had eighty or so followers. Who helped you put him down?"
Harry had a sad gaze in his eyes and replied, "No one."
"Holy Christ, kid, er sir... What the hell? So what happened?"
"Well to answer your question, when it was over, somehow every wand in Britain disappeared."
"From what I heard, its not just Britain. It sounds like all of Europe. It's not just wands, my nephew..."
Harry made the connection and blurted, "Devlin."
"Exactly. Do you know him?"
"Not personally. I have, er had one of his brooms."
"The Firebolt?"
"Yes. I got it a year and a half ago."
"They must have just come out."
"I guess. Anyway, Director Ragnok from Gringotts wants Hermione and me to learn wandmaking and make wands for everyone."
Turning to Hermione, Daryl asked, "What's your part in this?"
"I'm his girlfriend."
Harry jumped in, "Actually it's more like I'm her boyfriend. Hermione's brilliant."
"Harry's being generous; I read a lot. Ragnok wants to set Harry and me up in a wandmaking business."
"What about Ollivander?"
She replied, "Apparently he passed away last week. His shop burned up and he was inside."
"I knew him a bit; a goofy guy but he knew his craft."
Emma thought, Pot, meet kettle.
Daryl asked, "Emma, aside from being mom and chaperon, what's your part in this? Do you teach at Hogwarts?"
"Heavens no, I'm a dentist."
"Cool. So would you like to learn about wandcrafting, or spend the days sightseeing and enjoying the weather?"
"I honestly haven't thought about it."
"There are summer session classes going on at the school. Would you be interested in being a guest in a few of the classes? The medical building is only a street away."
She replied, "I'd love to attend one but honestly, if you don't mind, I'd like to learn about the craft with Hermione and Harry."
"OK. I'll check with the medical departments and make a reservation for one of the lab sessions a week from Thursday. You're here for two weeks, correct?"
"Yes. Then I'll switch off with my husband, Dan, who will be here for the second two weeks. He's also a dentist."
"Perfect. I'll make the same offer for him. It's later than I expected. I'll walk you all back to the Inn. You should grab a quick dinner and get a good night's sleep."
As they were walking, Hermione asked, "What time should we be here tomorrow?"
"Nine. I'm planning on twenty percent discussion and eighty percent hands-on most days, once we get going. We'll be done for the day by four and take forty-five minutes for lunch starting sometime between 11:30 and noon, depending on what we're working on. You'll both make fifty or so wands while you're here. Emma, you'll make a few as well. We'll take the day off when you and Dan make your changeover."
He handed them each a backpack containing two textbooks, a loose leaf notebook, a pack of pens, some Sharpies, a walking map of the area, a cell phone for their use and several disposable Kodak cameras. He mentioned, "Just drop the cameras off at the front counter at the Inn and they'll develop the film and make two sets of prints. They're associated with the school. You can call home or each other with the phones. My number's in the address book along with emergency numbers."
They each thanked him and went to their rooms to freshen up before what did turn out to be a quick dinner and a good night's sleep.
… - ...
Sunday July 2
The next morning both Harry and Hermione were up before their agreed on meeting time of seven. Harry saw Hermione walk down the stairs, kissed and hugged her, saying "Good morning, Hermione. We're really here. Are you ready to start?"
"Yes, though I didn't finish the dendrology book. It was really considerate of Professor Whitehorn to supply us with the textbooks and notebooks."
"The what book?"
"Dendrology – the study of trees. I supposed you liked the woodcrafting book better?"
"Actually I did. Your dad has some of those tools in his shop, though his are made out of steel. Daryl's tools all seem to be made out of hardened silver or maybe titanium."
Emma came down a few minutes later. "Good morning you two. Did everyone sleep well?"
Hermione nodded and Harry replied, "Perfect. You?"
"Excellent." They had a delicious breakfast at the buffet and were soon on their way.
… - …
There was no delicious breakfast at the Burrow. Percy had moved back home as he'd been told that, at least for the time being, his job had been eliminated. Arthur (furloughed) was attempting to start a campfire and had tried soaking the matches in kerosene, rather than the wood. It went without saying that Ron was famished and had told everyone at least twice that he wasn't sure that he'd make it through the day if he didn't get fed.
Instead of coffee, French toast and bacon, they ended up having cheese sandwiches and water from the hand-pump well.
… - ...
Daryl greeted the three of them and led them back into the "classroom." After reminding them that they were free to get their own beverages he wrote three terms on his whiteboard, seemingly looking a lot more like a seasoned professor in Emma's eyes than someone that you'd meet in a bowling alley. Custom – Premade – Generic
He asked, "Emma by your guess, what would be the characteristics of a custom wand, vs. a premade wand vs. a generic one?"
By habit, Hermione squirmed in her seat a bit, mentally fighting the urge to raise her hand. Meanwhile, Harry sat quietly.
Emma replied, "In clothing, a custom suit starts with the client selecting fabric, stitching, style, buttons and in my husband's case, dress right or left. Then he'd get measured for his exact size."
Daryl nodded encouragingly. "A shop selling premade suits would have an extensive collection of suits, with options for sizes, fabrics and color. If the store had a discriminating clientele, the selection would be quite extensive."
"Excellent and the generic?"
She said, "A lot of thought needs to go into designing generic, Since you wouldn't be offering a wide variety of sizes, colors or styles, you would have to carefully think through what you could offer that wouldn't offend anyone; a small assortment of sizes that would at least be close for most people"
"Excellent analogy. Hermione can you transfigure that definition into wands?"
"Mr. Ollivander primarily sold premade wands. My recollection is that he had hundreds, actually maybe as many as two thousand premade wands in his in his shop. He seemed to want to match the wand with the personality of the customer. He made them out of a wide variety of woods in different sizes and I'd guess an equally wide variety of cores."
"How many wands did he have you try before you found the one that you use?"
"Six others."
"How many for you, Harry?"
"Nearly a hundred."
Emma gasped at the implication. In Harry's case, the old man must have been trying every bleeding-edge combination that he had before the one perfectly clicked with the-boy-who-lived.
"Hermione, how about the generics?"
"According to the book, some woods exhibit stronger, I mean more stubborn characteristics. I expect that the same might be said about core materials. With respect to size, I don't know of anyone who had a really short wand. Some were a bit thicker or thinner than usual."
She seemed to be stuck, so Whitehorn suggested, "Think back to what Emma said about offending..."
"About not offending. Generic wands would be made of wood varieties that were likely to not offend – to not reject many users. That's important; as at the moment, at least, they won't be offered other options."
"Outstanding." He flicked his finger at the whiteboard which was displaying the talking points that that they'd arrived at. To Hermione's amazement, he pressed the button next to the board three times and a moment later, three copies had printed out on three hole paper. He handed a sheet to each of them and said, "Please add this to your notebooks."
"Let's take a break. The restrooms are though the center door."
Emma remarked, "You have an exceptional teaching style. It's miles ahead of the lecture halls that I endured at Uni."
"I've always enjoyed holding structured conversations and in all honesty, I've never pretended to have all of the answers. I've been teaching and crafting wands for most of my life and I'm still learning every week. I've honestly only read about wizards with Harry's level of raw power; I've never met anyone who is near his level."
"How could you know?"
"Fifty years of teaching. A lot of students have walked through the doors."
She still had a puzzled look on her face. As the other two were still out in the shop, he added, "9,995 out of 10,000 would be dead facing Voldemort like he did. If the other 4 somehow managed to survive, they'd be in a magical exhaustion coma for a month. He probably had a big dinner and a few sugary beverages and was good as new after a good night's sleep."
… - ...
There were no cold beverages to be had at the Greengrass manor. The ambient magic had finally run low, leaving the two teenage witches and their parents completely dependent on their elf. The girls and their parents still had their magic but lacked the knowledge or tools to tap into it. Very few witches or wizards had ever put the time in to learn wandless spellcasting. Without their wands, they were helpless.
… - …
Meanwhile, things were pretty much the same as usual at the Andromeda Tonks household. Their home had normal utilities. The gas stove and electric appliances hadn't been affected by the Great Wandout, as her daughter was referring to it.
What was separating the two households was the fact that the Tonks household ran on nonmagical appliances and Ted was frequently paid in Pounds.
… - ...
As Hermione had predicted, prices in Diagon Alley were rising and there had been a run on currency conversions at Gringotts. At the current conversion rate, pounds were selling three to the galleon compared to the six-to-one rate he'd received a week ago. No customers were buying galleons. The Nation had been holding onto the British Pounds for decades and finally stood to make a fortune selling them.
… - ...
After they'd had lunch, Daryl said, "I'd like the three of you to look at these tree charts with an eye on their properties and availability. There's no sense in deciding to use wood from the tree of life if you have no idea where they might be; especially at the quantities that Gringotts was referencing."
He added, "You may stay as long as you wish. Just walk out the door when you are done and the shop will lock up behind you. Enjoy your afternoon and evening."
The three looked at each of the trees. Hermione and Emma focused in the descriptions while Harry was focused almost entirely in the tactile sense. Some woods felt nearly dead, some felt controversial. Emma noted the Alder and read, Swamp-dweller, water-lover. The wood of this tough tree doesn't rot when waterlogged, instead turning stronger and harder.
It sounded like a possibility to them but Harry wasn't positive that the feel was sufficiently neutral to be a generic. That said, he made a note in his notebook to consider it later. He made a similar note when he examined the Elder tree block.
They spent several hours carefully examining the different posters, gathering information and making notes in their notebooks. It was four when they decided that they were done for the day. As instructed they walked out. After they had closed the door, Emma looked in and noticed that the lights were out, even though they had been on moments earlier. The door was secured.
They walked a ways and Emma took their picture standing beneath an apple tree.
… - …
(Former) Minister Fudge lived in Brighton on the southern coast. He'd been unable to access his office when he'd resigned and it now occurred to him that he'd left a thick envelope filled with muggle bills on top of his desk. By itself, that would be a horrible annoyance, if it hadn't been marked "Vote yes on cauldron bottom bill. He cursed his bad luck and walked to the neighborhood pub thinking, Perhaps Amelia will have a sense of humor.
… - ...
Amelia tried to make the very best of what was currently a very bad situation. Their ability to protect and serve had been severely curtailed. Without wanded-apparition, the floo network, the knight bus, or portkeys, their collective mobility was reduced to the three Ministry cars and just over ten percent being of the Aurors able to reliably wandlessly apparate a maximum distance of twenty miles. She purchased eighty cell phones, one for each and had them working on rotating shifts of six hours doing foot patrol near where they lived, six hours of on-call and twenty-four hours off.
Demographically, there was nothing resembling equal coverage. Four of the staff lived in Hogsmeade, fifty within ten miles of London and the others all throughout the island. Amelia lived in Folkstone. As the remainder of the Ministry was effectively shut down, she was working from home.
She had chartered a boat and arranged to have it pick up the Azkaban staff and low-security prisoners. Having no place else to house them, she had no choice but to offer them a conditional parole.
… - ...
The situation at St. Mungo's was in a word desperate. The healers didn't have the option of working from home and were working twelve hours on-twelve off. They were nearly out of all but the most basic potions. They could only do visual diagnosis if a patient actually managed to come in. Without wands to refresh charms and wards, there were hygiene and structural issues arising at an ever-increasing rate.
… - ...
Monday July 3
Harry and the Grangers arrived on time Monday morning.
They were in the classroom again and Daryl asked Harry, "Without looking at the wall, name every tree that you can think of."
"Oak, elm, maple, walnut, yew, holly, alder, redwood, birch, willow, pine, spruce, ash, aspen, dogwood, vinewood, elder, cherry, holly, beech, hazel, hornbeam, whitebeam and apple."
"Without going in to varieties, such as five types of willow, that's a pretty comprehensive list. Hermione, how many did he name?"
"Twenty-four, Professor."
"Just Daryl, please." He wrote the number 24 on the whiteboard.
"OK, Harry, name every wand core that comes to mind."
"Dragon heart, phoenix feather, unicorn tail hair, thestral tail, basilisk venom, acromantula silk and venom, thunderbird feather, gryffin mane and hippogriff tail hair."
"The entire list is probably several times longer but yours will more than suffice. Hermione, how many did he name?"
"Ten."
"Of those ten, how many has he had personal experience with?"
"To my knowledge, he hasn't seen a thunderbird or actually touched a gryffin."
Holy Christ kid, you get around. He wrote the number 8 on the whiteboard.
"Emma, we talked about another wand dimensions yesterday. Which do you recall?"
"In plain terms, thin, normal or thick, long, medium or short - nine qualifiers."
He wrote the number 9 down. "Hermione, how many combinations would we have using that list?"
"24x8x9= 1,728 about as many wands as Mr. Ollivander had in his shop. I suppose he tried them all over the years and kept them around until someone came by."
Harry added, "That's totally ignoring multi-core wands."
"Precisely. The number of combinations would get completely out of hand. That's completely ignoring human ingredients."
"A vela witch that I know uses her grandmother's hair."
"Very good. Blood is also commonly used but in no way is suitable for a generic, OK, let's narrow the list down to something resembling manageable for your circumstance. What woods are common enough in Britain; meaning you could get a few good trees without spending days searching for them?"
Emma replied, "There are a great deal of white oak and elm trees that were planted after the war. The forest of Dean is mostly beech and pine. The lowlands have a lot of alder and willow."
"Thank you." He wrote;
White Oak
Willow
Beech
"Harry or Hermione, what trees are common in the big forest by Hogwarts?"
"Maple, pine, dogwood in the parts that I've seen. Harry?"
"Ash and poplar."
Daryl added Maple to the list on the whiteboard. He asked, "Which are the more common magical creatures that you previously mentioned?"
"Acromantulas, thestrals, hippogriffs, basilisk and probably unicorn."
"Was acromantula first on your list due to commonality?"
Harry replied, "Far and away. There are thousands of them in the forest by Hogwarts."
"Thestral and hippogriff?"
"There is a decent-size herd of each near the school."
"Unicorn?"
"Easy to see, harder to catch."
"OK. We'll leave the basilisk off the list. The venom is ridiculously corrosive but off the chart powerful. You could make some really radical wands with it but not for a generic; the same with ground bone but way less corrosive. If it's possible to get to it, you could ask one of the executives at your Gringotts to harvest it for you. Potioneers and Wandmakers world-wide would pay a fortune to work with some of those items but they're a poor fit for generics."
After a pause he said, "My recommendation would be to use white-oak, willow, beech and maple for your woods and thesteral and hippogriff for two of your three cores."
They nodded in agreement.
"The risk with the wood is that it won't have been dried and aged properly; ultimately leading to the likelihood of warpage of some percent of the wand blanks.
"Who is going to cut the trees?"
Harry replied, "I was thinking of having two friends of mine find the trees, having the Nation cut down and transport the trees and if you could show them how to cut and stack the blanks, my friends could get that work done while we're here with you."
"Harry..." Hermione gave a menacing tone.
He justified, "They'd have the time of their lives. I'll pay them whatever they ask."
After a moment of reflection, she admitted that he was probably right.
Emma asked, "So you're going to have a bunch of tail-less horse-like creatures running around for the summer? They won't like that. How fast does it grow back anyways?"
Daryl replied, "About an inch a month. My recommendation would be to have the collectors trim half off now and get the other half later in your project. Would it be possible to have your friends collect about 100 feet of acrumantula strand now, get your contact to collect four ounces of their venom and have your friends join us as they are able?"
Harry concentrated, Dobby and Winky, please go to Gringotts and ask to speak with Barchoke.
"Daryl, can you call your contact at the bank now? Ask to speak with Barchoke."
"By lucky chance he is my contact. It would be 5PM there."
"He'll be there."
Daryl dialed the number on the phone that Gringotts had sent. A minute later, they were conversing and Daryl asked, "Harry, are your friends named Dobby and Winky?"
Harry nodded and smiled. Harry explained what he wanted and asked if they could harvest the venom and ask them to make them some portkeys. Harry handed the phone back to Daryl, who discussed finding the trees, cutting them down and cutting them into seven and fourteen foot lengths to be stored until cut into blanks. He also discussed the collecting of the wand core materials. Then minutes later, he ended the call.
Outside the classroom, Emma caught glimpses of the conversation. ":...three each, ...five of those, ...take half from 30-40 each, …be careful, ..two hours? ...OK"
Daryl announced, "Lunch break."
… - …
The Burrow was rapidly becoming uninhabitable. The formerly-charmed toilets no longer worked, The cooler was warming up and they were rapidly running out of muggle money. They were using an old outhouse out by the orchard.
Arthur apparently hadn't watched Harry and Hermione start the campfire at the World Quidditch Cup last summer. He was all but out of matches.
… - ...
Tiberius Ogden wasn't happy. Most of the traditionalists that he regularly associated with were out of contact. Fudge had stepped down. That blasted Bones woman was running the place until the Wizengamot could elect a proper candidate.
Fortunately for him, the whiskey business was running more or less normally. There were no new batches being made this month but he had twenty-five years of inventory aging in oak barrels in his hidden warehouse.
The bottling operation functioned more-or less the same as their non magical counterparts, except with fewer laborers. Orders for cases arrived by owls and were delivered by six house elves. If they complained, he'd just beat them harder than normal.
… - …
Back in Salem, Daryl said, "OK, let's talk about the mechanics of making a wand." He held up a block of wood and a finished wand, then asked, "Why is this a piece of wood as opposed to being an overweight wand?"
Emma replied, "The block doesn't have a core added."
"Hermione, what is your wand's core?"
"Dragon heart; I never was told which variety."
That would require about a 1/8th inch channel grooved into the wand. What would be a thinner example?"
"Unicorn hair."
"That would be a very small channel; a 1/64th would suffice. Thestrals have a thicker, coarse hair. We would use 1/16th"
"Harry, how about your wand?"
"Phoenix feather."
"They're thicker. I don't have one at the moment."
"Hold on. Fawkes, can you come here?"
Emma, was about to say something about maintaining the flow of the class when they heard a joyful song. After ten seconds, there was a flash and Fawkes appeared, then regally sat on Harry's shoulder. He thought about what he wanted for a few seconds and the swan size bird leapt into the air, wiggled his tail and a tail feather fluttered onto Harry's lap. In another Flash, it disappeared.
Emma broke the stunned silence as she winked at Harry and in jest declared, "Showoff."
Daryl reverently examined the feather that Harry had just handed him as casually as loaning him a pencil and observed, "About 3/16th inch. We got off track here for a second. Let's take a quick break."
Harry left to use the restroom. Daryl asked, "How does he do that?"
Hermione observed. "At least it wasn't a 60 foot basilisk." Seeing Daryl set his Orange Crush down in near shock, she remarked, "A long story for another day."
Daryl carefully examined the phoenix feather; honestly a bit awed by the last five minutes.
When Harry returned, Daryl picked up another block of wood and passed it around to the three. After they had all examined it he asked, "What did you notice about it Hermione?"
"It's white oak."
He nodded at her answer and asked, "Emma?"
"The sample that you showed us was cut at least several years ago; I'd guess ten."
"Good. Harry?"
The block has a small knot running through the middle that would probably break as the wand was shaped."
"Good, and this piece?" again he passed it around.
Hermione observed, "Swamp Alder."
Emma remarked, "It's newly cut."
Harry declared, "It's perfectly clear. Ignoring the variety, that block would yield a perfect wand - unless we bungled up the splitting and shaping steps."
Daryl nodded and observed, "An interesting term, yield. Effectively it asks the question, how many would you have to start in order to get a usable finished product. Your uncle is in manufacturing?"
"Yes, I heard him talking to my cousin a few times about scrap and yield. He said scrap is usually calculated at the component level whereas yield is usually looked at at the finished assembly or the finished product level."
"Outstanding. Emma, back to the blocks of wood, if I handed you a hundred and had Harry inspect them how many would you guess he'd accept?"
Pleasantly surprising him, she asked, "How long is the block of wood?"
"Fifteen inches. The wands will range in size between ten and fourteen inches."
She replied, "Depending on the variety of wood, I'd guess between ten and seventy percent. That said, unless someone has unfettered access to several forests, I'd suggest that we keep the quantities of the available wood in mind when selecting varieties."
"Hermione, what qualities will come into consideration in this operation?"
"Clarity of the wood itself, meaning the absence of knots and the likelihood that a large percentage of people could perform magic using a wand made from that variety of wood. I expect that's why you didn't choose elm for your list."
Emma observed, "If a knot is going to fail a wand block, it would matter where it was located and how large it was. With a tooth cavity, if it just a spec sized on the edge, we'd smooth it out and that would be the end of it. If it's a monster size one by a root, that's a very different story. If the knot runs through the middle, the block is firewood, if its by the edge or end, it could be eliminated when the block is shaped or re-cut, which I expect that we'll eventually let you get to."
"Outstanding."
"Daryl, I have a question. To insert the core into the wand, is a hole drilled, or is the wood split and a groove made to hold to core?"
"Good question, Hermione. What would be the challenges in either method?"
"Assuming that the grain of the wood was perfectly parallel to the side of a block, it would be possible to split a block of wood using an extremely sharp blade, create the channels, insert the core, glue it and the two halves together then shape the wand, being careful not to accidentally expose the core in the shaping process."
Daryl nodded and replied, "And the drilling process?"
"Similar if you had the right equipment and one-in-a-million eye-hand co-ordination. My presumption is that you would drill from the handle, not go as far as the tip, carefully pack the core into the hole and reglue the hole in the base."
"Harry?"
"The finished products would be different. The drilled wand would be whippier whereas the glued wand would be stiffer at a similar thickness. Assuming that the splitting process doesn't scrap too much wood, I would think it would be the more reliable process in our situation."
"How did you come to that conclusion?"
"I was looking at the workstations that you'd set up. You know our task. There are plenty of razor cutters and wood clamps at each workstation, whereas I didn't see any drill bits."
"Good eye, especially considering that the wood shop that they set up for you just might not have electricity."
… - …
Amos Diggory walked into St Mungos with his son Cedric limping behind him carrying a paper sack. Amos muttered, "My son splinched part of his foot apparating this morning." It had taken them four hours to find the foot and hire a car to get to London.
It wasn't the first (or the fifth) case of splinching of the day. The receptionist replied, "Fourth floor. The lift is out; be careful walking up the stairs."
… - …
Daryl continued, "How about the other component – let's say unicorn hair. How do you maximize that?"
Hermione asked, "How long is it?"
"Twenty-two inches."
"Does the core have to run the entire length of the wand?"
Daryl replied, "Nearly. Almost to the tip, less so at the handle."
She asked, "Would several cut pieces work, or does it have to be one contiguous piece?"
"For this exercise, let's say one piece."
"Can the strand be cut and used elsewhere, or does it have to remain intact and be folded back?"
"Cutting is preferable."
"You could make two twelve-inch wands with that strand with no waste."
He remarked, "You asked insightful questions and arrived at an excellent answer. That's going to be your challenge with the tail hair. It's likely to be clumped, tangled and the like. The short of it is you only have so much – probably not enough. Efficient use of it will minimize scrap and allow you to make more wands. Regarding broken pieces, unless you have no other choice, I wouldn't recommend it."
Just then, there was a pop and Emma saw little Dobby and Winky carrying an impossibly large wooden crate. Dobby saw Harry, carefully set down his end and ran to hug his best friend in the world. "Harry Potter, sir has called on Dobby and Winky to perform important tasks. We are being very honored to be helping. Here is big ugly spider strand and nasty fang juice from big ugly beasties."
Kneeling down to give Dobby and Winky a hug in return, Harry said, "Dobby and Winky, this is Daryl, who is going to be showing us how to cut the wood and use the spider webbing that you brought."
The excitable little elf stood tall and replied, "Dobby and Winky are being very honored to be helping and learning." Winky was nodding in agreement.
Daryl replied, "Please show us the web strand. Winky, thank you for helping."
The elves opened the ten foot long wooden crate and the web strands were carefully strung between posts on either end of the crate.
Daryl said, "Thank you, Dobby. Thank you, Winky. You two packaged it very well." They beamed at him in gratitude. "How many spiders would you two guess are in the forest?"
Winky replied, "They's living in spider part of the forest. It be bigger than a mile."
"Dobby guesses that there be many thousands of big spiders in the forest; maybe five thousand. There are many hundred big webs like the one we brings to you."
"Thank you both." Harry helped them both into one of the huge (for them) chairs and brought them each a small glass of water and a cookie.
Daryl silently admired how the teen treated the little beings. It was yet another demonstration of good character. He continued, "Since the opportunity to test these has arrived, our first wands will be using web strands as the core. Our lesson will move out to the shop." He went to the first bench. Emma brought the shop stool over from the second bench over for Dobby and Winky so they could see too.
He set the block onto the base where it wouldn't slip, set the hardened silver slicer blade in the middle of the guide, describing his actions as he was doing them. When he was satisfied that everyone had seen the setup to that point, he firmly and smoothly ran the guide along the length of the block and it neatly sliced in two. He demonstrated it again then set a third block on the table and asked, "Emma, would you like to be first?"
She verified that the third block was properly in the non-slip holder. Next, she measured that the guide was set to cut in the exact middle of the block. Once satisfied, she ran the cutting guide rod along the length of the block. "Great. Set that block aside and try it again." She set it up and with a confidence that Harry wouldn't have expected, correctly sliced another block.
"Exact slices. Good job."
Hermione went next. Not having the extensive practice with home woodworking that her mun had, she was slower with the setup and overly tentative on the slice.
"Keeping going," Daryl said encouragingly. It wasn't as good as Emma's. But Daryl said, "It will do. Try again with a continuous stroke next time." She set it up as Harry nodded encouragingly. With a look of determination on her face, she ran the slicer the length of the block. It was split neatly in two.
Harry went next. Having watched his neighbor a few times, Harry was of a measure twice, cut once mentality when it came to woodworking. There was one block left and Harry was confident that he knew the procedure. He looked over at Dobby as Winky nudged him encouragingly. Harry glanced at Daryl who gave a quick wink. Harry lifted Dobby up to the slicer. Dobby looked carefully looked everything over, glanced at Harry, who nodded and the little elf slowly ran his little finger over the block as the slicer made a perfect slice. "You did it. Great job, Dobby!"
The little elf beamed at his friend.
Daryl looked over to Winky but she gave a slight shake of her head and pointed at her elf, who was basking in the moment.
Daryl said, "This as a good place to stop for the day. Tomorrow we will look at making blocks. Enjoy your evening. Dobby and Winky, can I arrange accommodations for you both?"
"We found the elf lodging at the Inn where Harry and his Grangies are staying. Thank you."
… - …
A/Ns
A question – What would Daryl do at the school when he wasn't teaching wandcrafting to clients with gigantic bankrolls?
… - ...