Each wizard or witch has a wand that is made of a specific wood. Some of the wood types are taken from the Celtic calendar, which assigns trees to specific sections of the Celtic year. Birch, ash, alder, willow, hawthorn, oak, hazel, vine, mahogany, maple, rosewood, yew, walnut or elder are just some of the woods used. J.K. Rowling gave Harry, Ron and Hermione a wood type that corresponds with their birthdays on the Celtic calendar. Harry's wand is made of holly; Ron's wand is made of ash; and Hermione's wand is made of vine.
Each wand contains a special core, and each core has some sort of magical property, which further defines each character. Some of the wand cores are described in the book. Dragon heartstring, demiguise hair, hippogriff talon and ashwinder ash cores are specific toward the type of spells or hexes at which they are best. Powerful cores include phoenix feather, chimaera scale and hair from the mane of Kelpie. A wand with runespoor fang is ideal for dealing with dark magic.
A wand's length primarily has to do with how tall the wizard or witch is. Some wand lengths are not specific, like Dolores Umbridge's, which is described only as "unusually short." However, most wands have a specific wand measurement that is described in the books. The longest wand known is Hagrid's at 16 inches, but most wands are around 10 to 12 inches.
The way a wand is waved is considered the quality of motion. Ollivander, the wand maker, comments on some of the wands. For example, James Potter's, Harry's father, wand, is described as pliable, which means that it could be molded and was good for transfiguration. Harry's mother, Lily Potter, had a wand that was swishy, which made it ideal for performing charm spells. Other motion characteristics include rather bendy, quite rigid, unyielding, inflexible and springy.
Some of the characters' wands were important within the series; Dumbledore's wand is probably one of the most important wands in the series. Dumbledore obtained the elder wand, which is the most powerful wand, after winning a duel, and it eventually ends up in Voldermort's hands near the end of the series. Voldermort's true wand has a phoenix feather core, is 13 1/2 inches long and made of yew. Harry's wand is a brother wand to Voldermort's, and it is 11 inches in length, made of holly and has the same phoenix feather core as Voldermort's.