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Do you think Mulberry or Buckeye woods would make good wands?

What a fun question! This is such an interesting question that I am going to neglect my analyses still further to answer it.

What makes a ‘good’ wandwood must at some level consist of the power and reliability of the wands it creates, themselves hugely variable depending on core, rigidity, length and other less heavily weighted factors, and of how commonly and well the wands it creates match well with magic users, a factor that is extremely difficult to determine. While wand cores’ effects on the power and overall nature of a wand are almost always immediately evident, wandwoods’ effects are, as a very general rule, both subtler and potentially more complex. Perhaps this is partially because the variability in effect between individual silver birches is less than the variability between individual phoenixes, so we find the subtleties of silver birch use easier to study.

Nevertheless! I’ll discuss the viability of these woods as wand materials (assuming, of course, that you could find some that bowtruckles have willingly settled in), and give some predictions as to their characters as wandwoods. BUCKEYE

‘Buckeye’ is a broad term, spanning at least six hardwood North American species in the genus Aesculus (lit. ‘edible acorn’). As far as I can tell, two of these species are used at all for lumber, and then only rarely, as it’s one of the weakest, softest hardwoods native to the US. It’s prized for specially and individually made objects, though, due to the striking dark-on-light discolourations that can be seen in its burls. A buckeye wand might be unique in appearance, if taken from the burl, but it would need careful upkeep to resist rot and everyday wear; wand polish would be more or less compulsory to avoid a fuzzy surface and a lifetime of only a few years, and it would incidentally very likely smell very unpleasant during processing, though once dried this scent is barely perceptible.

What could justify going to the trouble of making a fragile, unpredictable buckeye wand? Intellectual curiosity aside, buckeyes are trees with a rich and peculiarly recent folkloric history, and their peculiarities when used for wandwood would be well worth further study – the more I read the more interesting a wood it seems. As an overview, I’d say this is not a wandwood to pick on a whim, or because of its appearance, but rather that its best results might be gleaned locally on the basis of a pre-existing connection to the tree, and such results could only be meaningfully assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Now, I am British and not American, so bear with me if I say anything that seems very obvious! My first instinct regarding Aesculus-genus woods would be that they might have some minor aptitude for forceful or blunt duelling spells, just because of their long association with the practice of conkers, that traditional autumnal entertainment, but as it turns out that’s really a British thing outside of Nova Scotia, a few other areas in Canada, some parts of New York and one specific town in Massachusetts, in which one large horse chestnut tree in the town common provided all the necessary conkers for the town. The tendency of this tree to link to a specific location, though, seems like a common trait, with buckeye species tending to be restricted geographically - the yellow woolly buckeye, for example, is narrowly endemic to Texas (and, beyond the moniker ‘buckeye’ but within the same genus, the Japanese horse chestnut is endemic to Japan); Ohio is known as the ‘Buckeye State’, for their association with luck, wood cabins and several local historical and folk figures. If that horse chestnut from Leicester, Massachusetts was viable as a wandwood source, I can confidently predict that its magic would be intrinsically linked to that particular tree and its location in the physical and social landscape of the town. This… makes its characteristics even less predictable. But the implications of a strongly location-specific wand, as can be seen to a lesser extent with some English Oak wands, are very interesting. I would doubt such a tree would give wands anything less than a sociable outlook, possibly influenced by the generations of children playing with it to something of a dogwood-like mischievousness, or to a parental investment in community and familial duty. But then I’ve never met the tree! Certainly the fact that every part of the tree is mildly toxic could be indicative of something of a resistance to an unsuited wielder’s will, and possibly of a knack for low-level jinxes.

Buckeye’s seeds (sometimes erroneously called ‘nuts’) give it its name and are also the locus of much of the folklore associated with it – generally used as a good luck charm in games and gambling, and to stave off more everyday, persistent aches and pains. Again, not indicative of quick outbursts of power, but more of a steady, earthy, beneficent power, gained by long use and familiarity. The more I read about this wood the more it seems associated with very local tradition, often down to the family level, and used as a link between generations – from good luck charms to conker traditions to ash soap. I’d expect spells and charms connected to the everyday rituals and rhythms of the community to come particularly naturally to this wand, possibly even to the point of tacit casting as a common feature, under these specific conditions. For a magic user with a strong connection to a home, family or community in a buckeye area, and without huge ambitions, this could be an excellent wand.

Here’s an excellent post I stumbled on while researching this: https://newworldwitchery.com/2012/04/11/blog-post-154-buckeyes/ MULBERRY

I would love to see a mulberry wand! Wands from fruit trees are always very interesting to me. The history of mulberries, as far as I can tell, is one of secrecy and dispute, and there is no way I will be able to do it justice with the amount of time I have to research trees. Mulberries were brought to Britain by the Romans, and, like most fruit trees, have been used to treat ludicrous numbers of ailments over the years – in this case, particularly stomach problems, especially tapeworm ('it purgeth the belly and driveth forth worms’, says a British book of herbal remedies, 1597). Black mulberries have been cultivated so long in southwestern Asia that their exact origin is unknown, red mulberries are native to North America and white mulberries are native to northern China, but true to the tree’s tendency to spread individually each of these have been grown and cultivated widely throughout America, Asia and Europe, with the white mulberry now considered invasive in North America.

Mulberries, with their strange, crooked, writhing shape and their delicate, bloody fruit, can live for hundreds of years in rare cases, and have had more of a political role than many trees can aspire to, representing as they did the lucrative silk industry. James I attempted to wrest away the French silk monopoly in the 1600s, but planted the bloody black mulberry rather than the sweeter, blander white mulberry, which grows better in the British climate, and the British struggle to compete with the Chinese silk market continued through the 1800s. What strange, fertile imagery this tree provides! Merely for that I’d be tempted to recommend it. It really only gets more interesting. A white sap sometimes present in unripe fruit and green parts of the tree may be 'toxic, stimulating, or mildly hallucenogenic’. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe accounts for mulberries’ colour by claiming the fruits are stained with the star-crossed lovers’ blood, a tale possibly dating back to ancient Babylonia. It has considerable potency as an antidote to some snake venom, especially the venom of Russell’s viper. Ancient German folklore says the devil used its roots to blacken his boots. In some Chinese tradition mulberry is strongly associated with the rising sun, as the perch of the Sun Bird. All these suggest possible wand characteristics and strengths – an aptitude for illusion or brewing antidotes, perhaps a preoccupation with romance or tragedy – but in the interest of keeping this at a length I can fool myself into thinking somebody might read I won’t go too far into it. Suffice to say, mulberry is certainly a serviceable wandwood, with good workability and durability to wear and weather, and its (many, varied) particular abilities will likely unfold themselves to a wielder in the same gradual, unexpected way the tree grows. Might have to come back to this one!

Thank you for the question and sorry for the rambling. I hope this helps, and if you want something more specific let me know!

#general #wand analysis #wandwoods #buckeye #horse chestnut #mulberry #theory

wandwoods (mine’s hawthorn)

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Two well-known #wandwoods of the #PacificNorthwest #douglasfir #westernredcedar #Wizarding in the #WildWest (at St. Joe River, Saint Marie's Idaho)

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Super happy to gift this piece to my Free Art Friday Secret Santa recipient and awesome artist @wandwoods tonight. :D (12x12 inch on canvas) #fafss #faf #fafatl #freeartfriday #freeart #painting #acrylicpainting #handmadeart #handmade #wandwoods #chesterhopewell #hopewellians #funtimes #art #artwork #artistsoninstagram #artist #cartoonist #instaart #instaartist #ginakirlew