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I read somewhere years ago that Vitro put a matte finish on some of their marbles with an acid dip of some type. I have found lots of them mint in every way expect for the matte finish, so it seems plausible or probably likely to me. The chalkies from Alley have chalk all the way through the marble. Whatever is in them came through the tank and orifice. If the chalk flows with the stream, it's from the tank. If it doesn't, it's outside contamination. One easy way to tell how it got there.

JABO for sure.

Cool Dave! Glad you keep up with who sent you what. I do that too. A purple taterbug!? That's hard to find! Mojo, that last one is Heaton, a sweet potato. They used to be put with ravenswoods before the digs revealed where they were made.

If you aren't on it, I guess you haven't seen, but facebook is worse than ebay for marble info. Unless you know who to listen to (very few). A shark pit. Scammers, no rules, name calling, wrong IDs, wrong info, etc... I run a couple groups and try to keep info in line but it's like trying to spoon back the ocean. Overwhelming. I looked at the two MK groups I'm on and didn't see anything about the factory. What group is it on?

Here's hoping that there is lutz in the orange/pink onion at 2:00!

I agree on that other one, my answer was for the 1st, not paying much attention to the red one assuming it was one for comparison, not ID.

Akro slag.

Right, some are just ones that we decide which way we lean most and file it as that. They can always be moved to another box later. The pics at top right and middle right look most Alley to me, the large pic looks most RW to me. The steady width of the ribbon and tracing ribbon looked more RW to me, and the size points to RW to me, so I went with which maker got the most check marks in my own mental process. That doesn't mean it's not Alley. I can easily see it being Alley too and Ric's checklist might have worked similarly but with more check marks on the Alley side. Sometimes the answer is clear to nearly everyone, sometimes the answer is clear to a few, and sometimes nobody knows for sure.

Yep, if it's in the 5/8" neighborhood.

I spend a lot of time on that same fence Ric, this marble does it too.

Alley or Ravens. I lean Ravens.

I'll put Master out there.

I could call that Ravenswood.

Having a hard time seeing Alley here with the size and that pink combined... I think newer.

Yep both Wales pinchers. I don't have much love for the pinchers except for these, they are a really nice type.

I have no idea what wave black lights I have. I didn't know it mattered. With my black light, very few Heatons glow.

X 2, Pelt.

I agree the green one is an Asian "Imperial" and the uncertainty about the brown one and yellow/red.

Aventurine glass is not the aventurine mineral. Two different things. This is not a shimmering spruce. Cairo novelty is what I see.

It looks like it should but I have never seen one that did.

Lol Chicago, I hit send and it showed the balloon that you replied to this topic at the same time I did.

Master is where I'd have that center one.

That's 100% a Heaton. This brownish purple they used in this marble and several others was weaker and softer. It reacted badly with being buried, fractured a lot, and often got the ridges or abalone effect. A similar brownish purple was used by Alley and Cairo as well and it fared the same in the ground. I am pretty certain it's Wissmach glass, as much of it in that color was also found at Heaton and Cairo.

I agree, right one is a Neon Conqueror. Pretty hard to find and collectible. They seem to often have blow holes for some reason.

Not only can the weather play on the effects produce by the marble making setup, but just the equipment itself. The rollers and cutters operate off of a big electric 3-phase motor with belts, gears, and/or chains. All of this stuff turning and making noise, vibrating. "Vibrating".... this is may be one of the more problematic/influential things that makes a marble's appearance change. It turned MK rainbows into MK swirls, and it turned JABO swirls into patches. I was at DAS making marbles and vibration moved the marble machine. The operators noticed it before it caused too much distortion (their job), but if the machine vibrates too far to one side or the other, the ingot can drag the side of the cutter and end up making a patch. The operators took a long bar and pried the machine back in line with the flowing stream of molten glass to keep things working as they should. The temperature of the glass in the tank can change the marble. Hotter glass means it flows faster. The machine is set at a certain pace, the hotter glass running faster makes bigger ingots and hence, bigger marbles. If the rollers aren't big enough, it makes orange peel, then out of round marbles, then misshapen discards. If the glass cools too much, it makes smaller marbles, footballs, the orifice plugs up, you get drizzles from workers rodding out the clogged orifice, and cold rolls on the marbles. When the cutter goes back and forth, so does the molten glass stream. It sways with the cutter. It's cool to see. Once you see it, you can see how delicate the whole process is and how one small change can affect the way the marble looks. All this to say, the smallest shifting of the marble machine due to vibration could cause the ingot to turn 180 degrees and make one seam perpendicular to the other. It might happen 2-3 or more times a month, or a day. The diligence of the worker tending the machine would be the factor here. Something so simple can be the difference.