About White Ash Tree Wood

White Ash (Fraxinus Americana) is sometimes referred to as baseball bat wood. The wood is white, strong, straight-grained, and the tree is in the olive family. White ash is the largest of the ashes native to North America and is known for being tough. It does not break under large amounts of strain yet is quite light weight. Being one of the toughest and most elastic woods has led to its use in Native American spears, bows, clubs, and snow shoes since time immemorial.

The Metaphysical Ash

The magic influence of the ash tree reaches far back into time, and the properties are numerous. Ash wands or staves are good for healing, general magic, solar magic, to attract lightning, and is used to remove spells or hexes. The ancient World Tree (Yggdrasil) of Norse mythology is commonly thought to have been an ash tree, and the first man formed from the same. Being an herb of the sun, Ash brings light into the hearth at the Winter Solstice. The wood has traditionally been burned during the Yule holiday for prosperity of the household as the Yule Log. Celtic druid wands were often made of ash and decorated with symbols and sigils. The handle for a witches broom is traditionally made from ash wood, purportedly allowing witches to ride through the air.

 A bit of ash may be worn or kept in your home to protect from general evil or witchcraft, plus venomous animals too. Save the stripped off bark of ash and use for protection or prosperity spells, sea rituals, and health spells. An amulet to protect from drowning and vampires can be made by carving or binding two twigs together into a solar cross (Brigid's Cross). An ash staff or wand placed over the door wards off negative influences. It has also been said that tools with handles made of this wood will enable a person to do more work than could be done with tools whose handles were not of ash; hence the reason that ash wood is generally used as tool handles.

Specially Gathered Ash Wood: In addition to the powerful metaphysical uses for White Ash, many of the wands I craft hold the added power of hurricane winds and the energy of the peaking Full Moon. They were harvested and felled during the September 2008 Hurricane Ike Full Moon (USA). The mother tree still lives, and was quite healthy when these wands were harvested from a large branch that was twisted off by the high winds of a most unusual wind storm event. The wood harvested has never touched the ground. The tree fell just before the peak of the Moon; at 99%, and was harvested with the Moon at 100% full. My husband and myself worked swiftly to stay within the Full Moon time, but enjoyed our blessings with playful fun, hoping to pass that good energy along with the wands.

referenced
*tree: white ash. Photograph. Britannica Online for Kids. Web. 19  July  2012.  <http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-126771>.
*Illustration of white ash (Fraxinus Americana) http://ian.umces.edu/imagelibrary/displayimage-6603.html
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraxinus_americana
*http://www.answers.com/topic/ash-5
*http://www.angelfire.com/de/poetry/Flowers/Ash.html
* experience and verbal lore

--Tree Pruitt

Art of Wandmaking

 One of the great pleasures of the art of wandmaking is to let the self become open to the voices of Nature, entering a trance like state while crafting. At such times guidance from the inner self or Higher Powers can move through the artist emotionally, and a wand design can seem to create itself. It is in fact a communion with the Divine, and such creative acts are seen by some to be a call to service such as is the priesthood or a nunnery of the Christian faith. As artists we cannot be certain if creativity calls us to wand making or if wand making calls forth the creative Muse; The answer matters little for we do the job we are compelled to do with joy!

How I Make Hand Carved Wooden Wands: Each wand and talking stick by artist Tree Pruitt is as individual as the trees that grow from the Earth. No two can ever be the same in color, grain, or Spirit, when the individual character is allowed to emerge. No power tools are used to make wands, except for the electric wood burner for pyrography details. All of the work I do is by hand using knives, files, or stones to cut and shape the wood. The spiritual ritual tools that I craft are always only worked on in a positive environment with a ritual mind-set using the highest quality materials possible for heirloom quality authenticity.

My Do's & Don'ts

I Do...

• craft serious tools for serious use in magic and religious ceremony
• make wands of wood with other natural materials
• follow spiritual guidance tempered with knowledge when crafting
• work with hand tools, some are primitive rocks and stones
• craft ritual tools during the Constructive phase of the Moon and only in a positive mind set
• make each wand as its own special creation, a unique work of art never duplicated
• use re-claimed materials; some animal fur may come from vintage or antique clothing, some wand branches may have fallen from the mother tree by wind or rain
• use environmentally friendly varnish on some creations
• clean and heat sterilize away bacteria and insects
• use modern adhesives; my works are inspired by ancient cultures but not intended to represent actual historic "reproductions" (unless otherwise stated in an individual item description) therefore I feel that modern adhesives are fine and very practical to use. 

I Don't....

• harm trees or animals when harvesting materials, (bacteria and small insects are removed when I sterilize the wood)
• make wands as toys or home decor
• use plastic
• craft altar tools when in a negative mood
• mass-produce
• make wands of copper pipes, prefabricated tubes, or hardware store dowel rods
• use machines or turn on a lathe
• take custom orders though special symbols or characters may be added to a wand by request for personalisation (a finished wand must call to an owner as stated in a now Pop Culture phrase ... "the wand chooses the wizard")
• sell used wands... all of my wands are new and have not been previously used
• show in contests, display physically, or let others handle wands... my husband and myself may wave them about to test balance, heft, and energy but we feel that testing them out in actual magick practice would open the bonding process with the wand as if it were our own to keep 

The Thirteen Steps to Making These Ceremonial Magic Wands

1. Felled branches gathered.
2. Branches cut into lengths and cleaned of small out branches. This must be done very carefully to avoid cuttings oneself when working with hand tools. Cleaning was done with a ceremonial bowline knife that is only used for ritual crafting.
3. The new "naked" wands get spread out on a tray and low temp baked in an old oven to remove bacteria; sterilize.
4. Then smoothed down with various grades of sandpaper and/or natural stones.
5. After examining the wand, inspiration and Spirit takes over. A gem stone crystal that matches the form of the end of the wood is selected. It needs to not only fit the physical shape but also the function of the wand.
6. The wood is carved out by hand using eye measurement to allow the stone to fit as tightly as possible.
7. Once the shapes are right a strong glue is added before the pieces joined together. Making sure the fit is tight, the wand is allowed to dry.
8. After several days drying the glue, I swell the wood around the crystal. Small amounts of water are carefully allowed to soak into the grain of the wood, causing it to swell. I check the stone to test tightness and go on to another heat drying. This causes the wood grains to tighten up more than before; like tempering.
9. The next step is to add decoration to the body of the wand.
10. The pommel end is finished. A magic core or tassel may be added.
11. The piece is varnished with environmentally friendly varnish.
12. At the next Full Moon after varnishing the wand is given a welcoming ceremony to mark its finish and cleanse any unwanted energy accumulated during crafting. (see Ritual Tool Cleansing Brew)
13. Step thirteen, sacred number, is for the wand to find a home.

Also click "About" for more information on wands by Tree.

(copyright Tree Pruitt)

Starting with Blanks

I start all of my wands with ethically gathered sticks and branches that I've cut to length. Most will be set onto a tray for baking at a low temperature in order to sterilize them, especially if the bark will be left on the sticks.

The ends may be carved, rounded, or left in the raw. Small branch off-shoots make great places to tie on thongs of leather with feathers, charms, or beads for an owner to create personal touches.

This image shows unfinished wands. Some keep the tree bark on, some are de-barked, and some have twists or a spiral created by a partner vine having grown around the branch, such as with the honeysuckle wand shown in this photograph.

Wood types shown on this page are white ash above, twisted honeysuckle, oak, pin oak. Because I craft with wood that Spirit brings my way, rather than cutting trees apart, availability of species varies a lot. I enjoy the extra challenge that adds to creative flow and, it gives Spirit a greater opportunity to work through me, reaching out to that someone in need of a special ritual tool.