leroy65

Whats this I hear about somebody in Oklahoma having a birthday this coming Saturday? I hear that he lives in Duncan, Oklahoma and likes horses, dogs and other livestock and has been known to wet a fish hook once in a while and by the story's he tells of the big one that got away he's an avid fisherman. Happy birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday Ole BUDDY, Happy birthday. ----Leroy---- P.S. He also likes marbles.

To me this is what marble collecting is all about. Sometimes it seems that we get drawn off into left or right field with things that have nothing to do with marbles. Please keep the marble pictures coming which is very valuable to even old collectors like me. My wife just took two of my storage cabinets for her own use (with my permission) and I can't believe the marbles that I had put away in those cabinets. I can't even remember the last time that I had seen them. Now I can look at them again and id some of them that I couldn't before and put them away again in some storage boxes. I even found four original boxes of Chinese Checkers Marbles. Two in Akro Agate Co boxes ( Red near mint with the metal corners) One Vitro Agate Co box, ( Gray mint with original brown tape corners)) one Berry Pink, Inc (near mint with metal corners). Several jars and bags of marble. Like Xmas in Aug. ----Leroy---- P.S. The Chinese marbles and boxes are for sell. If you are interested email me at [email protected]

I think this is one of the best threads ever so please keep them coming. You folks can't imagine how all those pictures are helping any newbie that sees them. ----Leroy----

I,m sorry, I don't take and post pictures. I sometimes wish that I could. The marble is on it's way back to it's owner. ----Leroy----

kokoken, I handed this marble to my son a little while ago and his first comment was that it's dull. It is dull but that's because of the aventurine. I also just discovered that it glows under a black light, but only part of the marble. It's a nice marble. Thanks to you folks for your posts and support. ----Leroy----

Today in the mail I received a single marble to recondition. It is a CAC flame. I was sitting on my deck and the sun was shinning brightly through the lattice overhead right onto the marble and man, woman and child I want to tell you it is loaded with aventurine and is three colored. Have any of you ever run across a CAC flame with aventurine. This is the first one that I have seen. I emailed the owner telling him what he has and he was very surprised. I suggested that we not grind on it to remove the small slab or pinpricks as it would most likely remove the aventurine. He and I decided to take this marble to a higher court (a marble guru) for positive id and recommendation. So, if anyone has seen any CAC flames with aventurine, please post about them Thanks and Later----Leroy----

Well, what can I say except thanks to a bunch of great people. The special gifts sent by the "dirty Dawg" group now have a special place in my collection. I was very surprised when that box arrived. I had a 50% chance of opening it from the top (wasn't marked top or bottom) and as I've never been very lucky with the "chance games" I opened it upside down. Wow! What fun chasing all those small items down let alone trying to get all the "peanuts" picked up and disposed of (they really stick to your fingers). LOL At any rate I love you guys and again thanks and for the birthday greetings from friends on the board,it really made my day special.----Leroy--Dirty Dawg #1----

If I remember right it lost just over 1/8" and is 1/64" less than 1 3/8". "My pocket chum" is getting old and tired and the measurement may be off just a tad. ----Leroy----

This is the reason that I do what I do. I just love taking an old beat up marble and making it beautiful again. Thank you for allowing me to help your hurt marble. ----Leroy----

Happy Birthday Weldon. Now would be a good time to go outside, draw a big circle put some marbles in the middle and challenge Edna to a game of keepers (maybe because it's your birthday she'll let you win). LOL ----Leroy----

Dang, wrong again. That's what time can due to my memory. Hey Friend, I don't give things to people expecting for them to be returned. It belonged to you from the time I put it into the post office, whenever that was. I just thought it was black Av., but you are right it does say that Akro had aventurine in marbles back when? Thanks Bo for setting me straight. ----Leroy----

A few years ago I sent Bo Stiff a solid black aventurine marble that was dug at one of the Akro digs. A digger by the name of Clifford White sent it to me and he was the one that dug it up and said that it was quit deep in the ground. It was far from round, but solid black aventurine. As far as how old it is, your guess will be as good as any. I think this is right, but it's been a long time ago and my memory isn't what it used to be.

Hello Bob, I am known as the marblemender as I have and do recondition hurt marbles. From what you have posted I use the same kind of machines as you do (three headed). Most but not all marbles can be reconditioned by grinding all the impacts and damage from the surface and than taking them on through the pre-polish and final polish using the same steps as I'm sure that you do. The compounds that I use are number 220 Graded Silicon Carbide for grinding out the damage. Than I use the number 1000 for pre-polish and than onto the final polish using Raybrite A 0.5 micron alumina. This is what I have used for years and it works just fine for marbles and agates. I will be happy to share any information that I have on reconditioning marbles if you will email me at [email protected]. ----Leroy----P.S. I stopped using water drip several years ago and use another method instead which I'll be glad to share with you.

Very good point Sami. That's more or less what I've been looking for, thanks. Isn't it funny the simplest things are looking us right in the eye and sometimes we can't see it (meaning myself). From now on my cullet marbles will be labeled "machine cut" instead of machine made. To each his own. Thanks----Leroy----

All of my cullet marbles have been machine made. By that I mean the cullet was slabbed by a motor operated saw. Than cut into hexagon shape and than semi rounded by a diamond arbor that is operated by a motor. After that I put them into one of my three headed Sphere machines and took them through a three step process. The end results are very nice cullet marbles. I can't say that they are handmade nor can I say that they are machine made in the sense that we understand "machine made" marbles. So as a result I call them such things as Akro or Peltier cullet marbles or whose ever cullet was used and I have quite a list of marbles made by various cullet with none made from modern cullet. To each his own----Leroy----

How do you think a marble made from old cullet should be classified? Should it be called an old marble? Should it be called a new contemporary marble? Or simply a cullet marble? I'm assuming that we have marble cullet that isn't very old and we have cullet that is well over 100 years old. What do you think? ----Leroy----P.S. I have cullet marbles that I have made from both old and new cullet including some that look a lot like the one posted in another thread. I have given a lot of them away to various collectors.

I am among the Elite on Scott's board. I have been banned from his board from the getgo. Have no idea why and really don't care. I'm sure glad this board is back. Thanks Lou. ----Leroy----

I agree with the above statement, however what happens to a flood? It will go away. The old company's turned out millions of marbles EVERY day for years. They shipped box car loads. There must have been billions turned out over the years. Where are all those marbles today? Some of them are selling for big money (when you can find them). I believe that what we are seeing with Jabo is the same thing people were seeing from the early 1900's through the 1940's when the old marble company's started fading out. Of course Jabo production is just a drop in the bucket compared to the marbles turned out on a daily bases by the old company's that are just history now. IMHO ----Leroy----

I certainly did my share of using marbles as slingshot ammo back in the early to late 1940's. One of our favorite past times was making a sling (you know like David used to slay the giant). We would put as many as five or six marbles in it at a time and called it our machine gun (some of us became quite accurate with them). Man it sure worked nice, but used a lot of marbles. Some we would recover to use again, but there were always those that we couldn't find. I always thought I'd like to go back and search for some of those marbles, but than I found out that the town that I grew up in (Minneola Florida) the population went from about 300 (when I lived there) to well over 22,000 today. No chance of me ever going back there. ----Leroy----

More years ago than I want to remember, that's what got me seeking ways to save those marbles. I had bunches of them and some very rare ones at that. I tried tumblers, buffing pads, etc. Finally I found a fellow by the name of Ed Junker and to make a short story out of it, he made me my first marble reconditioning machine. I operated for about a year with one machine, but now have six. Some people really frown on reconditioned (polished, buffed) marbles. I find no fault with them, but many beautiful marbles have been saved because of some person willing to spend the time, effort and expense to recondition a hurt marble. No matter what happens Akro, Master Made, Peltier, MFC and others of the old company's will not be making more of their marbles. They are in the history books. These company's turned out millions of marbles per day for years and years. So where are all those marbles? They must have numbered in the Billions back when. At any rate, certain marbles are certainly worth saving by making them like new again by some good reconditioner. IMHO ----Leroy----

Hey, Today,s the day. Happy 57th birthday Bo and I sure hope that you have many, many more.----Leroy----

I have collected all kinds, makers and types of marbles for the past 30 or so years. I have never collected a marble due to its value. I place my value in it's beauty and that's why I became a marble reconditioner (to bring out the beauty of a hurt marble.) I have been very lucky that Edna has sent me some of the Jabo marbles and some of them rank in beauty right along with the older produced marbles. Thanks Edna! I think we need two types of boards. Those that are true collectors and love marbles for their beauty as well as their rarity, and a board for those that are just in it to buy and sell for a profit. IMHO ----Leroy----

I'm just wondering---In comparison to Akro, Peltier, Christensen Agate, M.F. Christensen & Son and the other early producers of marbles how does Jabo stack up as far as numbers produced? ----Leroy----

Happy Birthday Bo Stiff even though I'm not sure of the exact date, but I believe it's the 9th and I hope you have plenty more. ----Leroy----

I don't come here very often anymore, but I feel like I need to say something about a shipment of marbles that I just received. I knew there was trouble as soon as I took them out of the mailbox. The marbles were rolling free inside the box. I think you can still call them marbles even though it's very hard to tell. The inside bottom of the box is littered when broken and ground glass. These marbles are completely destroyed and there really isn't anything I can do to help them. It's to bad as there were a couple of very nice handmade marbles and I can't tell what the others were. PLEASE, when you ship marbles wrap them in bubble wrap after putting each one in it's own plastic bag (or tissue or something to keep them from banging into each other.) Than make sure that they can't move in the shipping container. ----Leroy----