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What was the most common wand core over the course of the Harry Potter series. Was it Phoenix, Unicorn, or other?

Himarm
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  • Other = dragon heartstring and there are other rarer ones e.g The Elder Wand gas a Thestral hair and Fleur's has a Veela hair. Most common are definitely either Unicorn hair or dragon heartstring unless foreign wands are all different but I'm sure that's never been explained. – ThruGog Oct 02 '15 at 18:09

2 Answers2

7

Either dragon heartstring or unicorn hair.

According to Pottermore, Garrick Ollivander settled on three types of core:

After much experimentation and research, I concluded that only three substances produce wands of the quality to which I am happy to give the illustrious name of Ollivander: unicorn hair, dragon heartstring and phoenix feather.

Given that Ollivander is the most prominent manufacturer of wands in Britain, and the narrative is entirely set in Britain, it is reasonable to focus on these three cores as the most common in canon. (Different wand makers used different cores and woods, so there could well be another core which is more common globally. I’m just talking about the wands mentioned in canon.)

These are the wands listed in canon, along with pointers to references:

  • Unicorn hair [9]:

    • Remus Lupin
    • Ron Weasley x2 [Philosopher’s Stone, chapter 6 and Prisoner of Azkaban, chapter 4]
    • Cedric Diggory [Goblet of Fire, chapter 18]
    • Neville Longbottom’s second wand [Half-Blood Prince, chapter 7]
    • Mary Cattermole [Deathly Hallows, chapter 13]
    • Draco Malfoy [Deathly Hallows, chapter 24]
    • Quirinus Quirrell [Pottermore]

  • Dragon heartstring [9]:

    • Viktor Krum [Goblet of Fire, chapter 18]
    • Lucius Malfoy [Deathly Hallows, chapter 1]
    • Bellatrix Lestrange and Peter Pettigrew [Deathly Hallows, chapter 24]
    • Garrick Ollivander [Pottermore]
    • Gilderoy Lockhart [Pottermore]
    • Minerva McGonagall [Pottermore]
    • Hermione Granger [JKRowling.com]

  • Phoenix feather [5]:

    • Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort (both from Fawkes)
    • Silvanus Kettlebern [Pottermore]
    • Celestina Warbeck [Pottermore]

Note that I’ve added one to each total because Harry tries one of each when in Ollivander’s shop [Philosopher’s Stone, chapter 5], which are all rejected.

Dragon heartstring wins out, but it’s very close. After correcting my dodgy counting (h/t Jason Baker), we have an equal number of dragon heartstring and unicorn tail hair wands.

In Pottermore, Ollivander says “[phoenix tail feather] is the rarest core type”, and that’s backed up by the number of wands we see in canon.

Jason Baker
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alexwlchan
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  • I'm also pretty sure you're double-counting Harry's phoenix-tail wand. Not that it really matters for the purposes of this question – Jason Baker Oct 02 '15 at 22:09
  • @JasonBaker I really can’t count tonight, can I? I’d missed the fact that he doesn’t turn down a phoenix wand in Ollivander’s shop; I didn’t read carefully enough. Also fixed. – alexwlchan Oct 02 '15 at 22:11
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    I think dodgy math is a Harry Potter tradition or something =) – Jason Baker Oct 02 '15 at 22:13
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    Speaking of, I led you astray; Harry does try a phoenix feather wand (Maple and phoenix feather) before settling on the Holly wand; sorry about that! – Jason Baker Oct 05 '15 at 13:27
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The most common core used by Ollivanders is Unicorn Hair

The wand cores used by Ollivanders in order of most common to least common are as follows:

  1. Unicorn Hair
  2. Dragon Heartstring
  3. Phoenix feather

Sources

  • Ollivanders consistently uses this order throughout his notes, ending off by saying that Pheonix "is the rarest core type".
  • The Pottermore Wand Quiz has Unicorn Hair as the most common, with a 49% chance of getting it. (Dragon Heartstring and Phoenix Feather have 31% and 20% chances respectively.) (Source)
ibid
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