Wand cores -Random Thoughts

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 44385

I'm going to make a few general comments, more on the overal subject
than to anyone specifically.

It's alway been my feeling the pheonix wands were like the 'Royal'
wands; very elite and rare. The match of wizard to a pheonix wand is
as rare as the pheonix feathers themselves. From which you should
obviously conclude that I think pheonix feathers are rare. 

Think how often and how easily we have seen unicorns in the story so
far. I seems that Hagrid and other talented animal handlers can pretty
much get a unicorn when ever they want one. So unicorn hair can't be
all that hard to come by.

Now dragon heart; Dragons are/can be over 50feet tall. As tall or
slightly taller than a five story building, and they would logically
seem to be physically strong creatures with great endurance.
Assumptions I make from how much they weight and the fact that they
can fly. Conclusion; dragons have big hearts, so one dead dragon
equals a LOT of wizard wands.

Pheonix feather; this is my theory, I can't really support it with
canon, but it is my intuitive sense of the nature of pheonix and their
feathers. Pheonix feathers are rare because pheonix are rare. They are
elusive creatures that don't take to human in general, and the
grandest most desired pheonix seem to come from very remote and exotic
locations. 

Next, and this part is my theory, a pheonix can only give up a feather
voluntarily. Only these feathers can be used for wands. A feather that
molts or one taken by force will be destory on the bird's burning day.
Although, I have heard of pheonix life spans ranging from 500 to 1700
years, so the time between burning days is pretty long, and that kind
of weakens my theory. In addition to this, it is my purely unfounded
theory that when a pheonix gives up a feather, that feather is lost
forever, so they are not real eager to give them up. Final conclusion;
pheonix feather are relatively rare and the wizards who match them are
also very rare.

Unanswered pheonix questions: 
Does it have to be a whole feather? I seems like the tail feathers are
very long, substatially longer than a wand, so could one long tail
feather be cut into two or three pieces to make more than one wand?
Don't know. And if a tail feather is substantially longer than a
typical wand, how does Ollivander cram all that feather into the wand?
Magic, I guess?

Next, Does it have to be a TAIL feather?  Could a pheonix give a minor
feather, say one that is 3 or 4 inches long, and could a successful
wand be made from one of these minor feathers? Or does a minor feather
equal a lesser wand? To all of the above; I don't know. 

Other wand cores:
Wow, tough question. It must be possible to use other creatures, but
which ones? Richelle Votaw gave a nice long list of creatures. I
looked in an on-line encyclopidia of magical & mythical creature to
see if I could find more. Trying to decide which are suitable isn't an
easy task. I assume it has to be a sufficiently magical creature. 

Centaurs and merpeople are certainly magical in our sense of
wonderment, but they do not seem to be creature of great magical
ability or power. So they are probably out. Certainly you wouldn't
want an evil creature, so banshee or other creature associated with
death or evil would be out. Billywig stings while making great candy,
probably aren't up to the task. 

So how about fairy wings or elf hair? Certainly elves are powerful
magical creatures, and they don't seem to be all that rare. Maybe
there is some incompatability between human magic and elfin body parts. 

I guess some of the less exotic more common Euro-pheonixes might be OK
but they don't seem to have the same magical power as the Asian
pheonix. (although, I can't prove that.)

I guess my only real comment on alternative magical creature wand
cores is that, after searching for hours, I found it almost impossible
to determine which creatures really had any potential. Obviously, I
would make a lousy wand maker. 

So while these comments probably only add up to a penny and halfs
worth, they are none the less my penny and halfs worth.

Thanks for your indulgence.

bboy_mn