RolleyHoleMan

I’m glad to look at any source of info out there. Unfortunately I’ve spent so much time digging it sometimes feels like there isn’t anything new out there. The main thing I’ve been looking for is any documentation on marble making rigs. Everyone talks about Bud Garrets marble machine but no one knows where it is or how it works. The strong brothers also had some type of semi-automated machine that no one knows about. Seems there’s little documentation on things like that. I’ve seen some dangerous saws but that’s about it.

Also, that reminds me. I was looking into making a wiki page for Rolley Hole. What quickly became apparent was that this would be nearly impossible because most sources are either from Bobby, or their sources are Bobby. Wikipedia will not allow this. Plus most of my info is from a combination of interviews with people (by me) and Bobby, so I'm no good for making a source acceptable from an academic standpoint. Best I can do is just keep on talking about marbles.

I never was able to get the flint. Unfortunately I never was able to make contact with the owner. I know he in his 80s, so I also wrote him a letter since I have his address. He is located in Crossville, which is where I assume he got his material. There are many facebook listings for "geodes" for sale in that area, but you must buy it by the bucket. The videos posted by the seller are of them busting these nodules open, revealing crystals which are no good, but cool. I forget the going rate, but I want to say a 10 gallon bucket is $30. You don't know if a rock will be any good until you cut it, and I sure don't want to buy a $30 bucket of duds. Anyways when looking at geology in Crossville today, all I saw was sandstone. There's good reason all the older buildings are built with crab orchard sandstone, that stuff is everywhere.

I've had some decent luck going through the state archives but what's always funny is that other places have much better info on Tennessee. For example I have been going through State reports from the 1930's-1970's, and a university in Illinois has all of these documents the State of Tennessee doesn't have. A lot of the old Rolley Hole literature I find online is written by "Robert J. Fulcher", known to us as "Bobby". When I see him I always have to talk some marbles. All we have in regards to Rolley Hole today is because of his Folklore project and interviewing Bud Garret. From what I was told, they were interviewing Bud about his music and he kep talking and singing about marbles. As Bobby said, "It seemed to be the right thing to look into". And it sure was. Another unfortunate thing is folklore is getting overlooked in State Parks, though people want it. They want that connection and they always light up when taken aside and given the ins and outs of Rolley Hole and any other local info. When I do job interviews my folklore stuff is pushed aside with a general "that's neat, but what else do you have". Rolley Hole is one of the last standing traditions being upheld in parks, most have lost their heritage and their history. Anyways, I didn't get to any marbles today, and likely won't tomorrow. Tomorrow might be a good day for looking for rocks or something though, probably in crossville. I keep hearing of the famous white flint over that way, but no one will say where it is. Most don't know for sure of course. A local man was offering to sell some nodules at a premium $75 per nodule, and we were willing to pay it too.

Where did you hear about that from? I wish more people here talked about playing marbles as a kid. Most don’t really say much besides they did it. Of course the most common story is along the lines of not being allowed to play with the old men. Different people say different things about this, usually “they didn’t let me play because they knew they’d lose”. Now days most of the marble kids don’t play until it comes time to get ready for the ringer tournament in New Jersey. Or that’s what the parents tell me. But some of them kids sure can shoot. I had a kid who was 8 doing trick shots and making a fool out of me. It gets pretty funny. There’s even kids making marbles now. In my 20s I’m an old man compared to the army of kids out there making marbles. Those kids know exactly what they want in a marble and they sure know how to make it happen.

Being around Rolley Hole I’ve seen some beat marbles, but when it comes to stone I’m starting to wonder more about the structure. Last Rolley Hole I watched a known hard-shot try to break a marble. He didn’t end up breaking it, but the force of his shots and the flash of the marbles had me really wondering. During Tennessee Square I did see a player break a shooter. He was pretty darn mad and said some choice words about it. I’m not sure what his marble was made of since I’ve heard some guys actually use ceramic marbles for that game. As far as glass marbles go, I’ve never seen impact marks, just chips and breaks. Clay marbles I bet would show more for impacts but I don’t know anyone who uses them. Lots of folks send me photos from state displays (usually archeology displays) of misshapen clay marbles, but usually they have chips. Somewhere here I have clay marbles I made in boyscouts. Maybe they got thrown away, but we made them in a fire using clay from the Tennessee river. Those things ended up with the finish and feel of house bricks. They might be something to try making again.

Here’s something mildly interesting. I brought my unfinished marbles to work and was shooting them a good bit and with some force, causing the “crescent moons” to show up clearly on the more clear marble. The others had these marks visible as well. For the first time I really looked at these marks. Well worn marbles are covered in these marks and over time they can start to internally collapse, and eventually chip. What I think is happening is each “crescent” is a small fracture. You see the initial mark, and can follow a line deeper into the material. Since these marbles are in progress and need to be spun more, we can see how deep these marks really are. The clear marble I’m not sure how much smaller I’ll make it. It’s in the sweet spot that really works well for me.

Last photo I forgot about. Those marbles went through the marble mill and they polished up since they weren’t bouncing. They also got oddly dark when doing this. Resurfacing them made them lighten up again.

Here’s some of todays marble adventure. I didn’t get started until a bit later in the day, but I did keep it up for a few hours. I’m already noticing wear on my new bench grinder bushings so that’s no fun, but bushings are cheap and easy to replace. This here is a marble mill rig I set up for some quick fun. Overall it doesn’t bounce or wear smooth marbles all that well even though the grinding wheel is 60 grit, but what it does do is spin rough orbs well and gets them ready for spinning in my more valuable cups that often chip away quickly when spinning a rough marble. One of the divots I made in this wheel wore through and the marble was bouncing on the metal underneath and that happened quickly with very little pressure, so this type of setup needs to be watched. My drill press was going at around 2000 RPM and the rubber wheel is a decal eraser wheel used on cars, which is what I usually use if for. Here is a rough sphere I cut out and am now spinning. When wet it really shows some great color and it certainly a sought after material. Most cubes I have of this are very sandy so it’s hit or miss when it comes to these. Cutting the cubes down with a trim saw saved a ton of time over just leaving them as cubes. Note the left bottom marble. It is from the same nodule as the one above, but filled with sand. I have little hope for it, but if finished it’ll at least be pretty. Lately I’ve been making marbles from problematic material much larger. No point in wasting time making them small when they can’t be used. Here’s all the marbles I’m working on. The clear marble on the top right is the one that has a bad spot I’ve been wearing down. The spot is mostly gone, but the very center of it runs deep. By .78 it better be gone. The marble on the far left is finished. I had a lot of issues getting it completely round for some reason, and it’s not as tight of a tolerance I would like but it is in spec for the average marble. Some of us just get more hardcore with roundness. It’s off by maybe .002 or so, but I can’t remember for sure. You can’t tell by feel or looking at it. Either way it’s a fine shooter and once done I shot it a bit and it’s one I’m accurate with, so it’s in that sweet spot for me. What im thinking of doing is having 4 of these more clear marbles for teaching. I was originally thinking of having 4 different color ones but was also considering marking each clear marble with a colored marker to help people keep track. The place I plan to teach marbles is pavement and this clear material seems more forgiving with potential damage.

The worry I often have with these cracks is even if I can get them out, the marble will end up small. Some marbles I cracked at .82 or so I was only able to get the cracks out around the .75 area or smaller. So I may just leave it for now.

Spent most of the daylight I had today cutting corners off cubes and better shaping them up to reduce wear and tear on the diamond wheel. I’ve not really got the hang of it yet, but the pieces I cut do look like a cube that’s been ground on for a good while, so it’s better than nothing. I finished one marble today, and it sure is a pretty one which the camera and my indoor photography doesn’t really capture. I started out making it a shooter and have it as round as I can get it, which is tight. When spinning it in the final polish I made a critical mistake of getting it too hot. When I rinsed it off, it seems the cooling may have caused these small spider cracks in the material. Maybe they were there and weren’t visible until the surface became highly polished. Sometimes you can spin it more and get rid of these but I’ll move onto the other marbles later. The other marbles should be fine shooters, and the material is excellent. The material from this nodule is so good that by accident I confused one of the marbles with 3 marbles given to me by Mr. Carr, a local marble maker. It took a long time to pick out which one was mine, and I was only able to do so by examining all the marbles and finding the one (mine) which did not have any “crescent moon” impact marbles from gameplay. When I made marbles at Standing Stone, I usually got to play with them or have the locals smack the fire out of them, so even the fine butterscotch marbles have impact marks from when I played Georgia Rolley Hole at the tournament. Those local boys really had a time beating me to a pulp. During British marbles they were more forgiving in the sense I wasn’t much of a threat, so others were targeted. The red material pictured came from a piece of material from Roane County, and the piece it came from kept breaking apart due to how it was layered. It might end up a pretty marble if it doesn’t explode. Locals call this stuff “paint rock” but it doesn’t seem to be the paint rock agate found in the state. At my last job interview they had a nice case of geological specimens from the State and their piece of paint rock agate was reddish and rather clear. It was tumbled and didn’t appear like the best specimen since it didn’t have the wild colorations. Of course standing in front of the display case I thought “dang, that would have been a great marble”.

Here’s what i got to earlier. Tomorrow I hope to finish these marbles up. The more colored marbles are going to be cool, but when I started on another cube of this material it was filled with hidden sand. I’ve never had a marble/cube that bad. I’d say it could still make a cool marble. Some point soon I might start listing some more marbles. I think at the moment I only have a couple white ones listed. If I can get a couple sold off I should be able to buy a new saw blade I’ve been looking at, then work on getting more material. With potential job interviews coming up, I have more chances to go to more places to look for material. In my last interview I was asked about how much time I put into Rolley Hole, and my answer was “well, right after this interview I’m meeting someone at a gas station to buy a rock saw”. Needless to say, I didn’t get that job.

These started all pretty big, so they’re going to take a ton of spinning to get to a decent size. I’ve not had any marble requests so I just make them how I want them. The marble on the right is going to be a hard one for sure. Once that rough spot is worn down it’ll be one solid shooter. I restocked my toolbox with a big bunch of cubes. I didn’t count, but thinking about it I’d say there’s 15 or so marbles on the way. I’m starting to get in the habit of spinning marbles before work. I work evening shift and don’t have to be there until 2pm so I’ve been taking a couple hours to spin marbles instead of watching tv or something. if my work uniform wasn’t all black I’d be spinning marbles there too.

Here’s what was done today. I spent most of my marble time cutting the renaming material I had into cubes. Some of the material does have some cracks and issues but will make pretty marbles. Other material without cracks will make some amazing marbles but I don’t know how good they’ll be for Rolley Hole. Im no expert when it comes to material, and am working with the info given by other marble makers with more skill and local knowledge. The main thing many makers obsess on is how light passes through the material and how a high powered laser should light up good material completely regardless of color. This is due to a more fiberous and tightly packed structure needed for durability. Some of my pieces do that, some don’t. This “yellow” material is very interesting. I have not seen anyone playing with material that looks like this, but I was given similar material by a former park manager. This material has a lot of veins going through it and looks like limestone (it’s not lonesome). Very interesting stuff but prone to having faults. Here is a slab from the above cubes Here is a stick that was later cubed. The ends are very sandy and the nodule this came from is the most unusual nodule I’d ever seen. I was told to not try cutting it up since it would be a waste, but deep in the large nodule there was some solid material. If this nodule was all good, i would have made 15-20 cubes. I got only 5 very good cubes out of it. Areas of this material had quartz deposits that looked like that children’s play foam from the early 2000s. Or like styrofoam. Good sections are a beautiful Smokey quartz. Finally we have the two marbles I started. My grinding has slowed due to me trying to make marbles using the original method I was taught (and forgot). One marble is cracked and from the material cut today, and the other is from the clear quartz I’ve been using for a while. The clear quartz will make a fine shooter, while the other I’m not sure on. I’ve talked to a lot of marble makers and everyone has an opinion on material that varies from the next guy. One maker told me cracks like this didn’t matter. Others say it means everything. I know makers who make cracked marbles and makers who toss any cubes with even the slightest issue. There is also the issue of fissures which from my understanding are cracks filled by mineral seepage that “seals” the crack. When you see a crack that has color in it, it is likely this.

Here’s some more material. I’ll have to inspect each piece but I did cut maybe 10 cubes today. I expect most to be junk, but the saw cuts fast enough that I push on. other material I cut looked great until I used a laser on it. Fault lines showed up in many of the cubes, and a blow from a hammer broke a few cleanly. Here’s some rock photos and a pile of scraps made in around an hour. Bigger pieces were from rocks that were cut in half and showed sand.

This morning I cut some test cubes. Seems all my remaining material is junk, but these two cubes will make some beautiful (but cracked) marbles. There are a couple more pieces I’ll try but for the most part I’m going to focus on trimming down cubes. Also the one cube I cut sure does have a butterscotch color going on. The material itself doesn’t pass light very well so the structure of the material is questionable.

Ended up getting the saw. I know it’s made by Highland Park, but don’t know anything else about it really. It does seem to run alright . it’s missing the (optional I think) auto feed parts. Sure would be cool to find that and not have to stand there.

Here are todays marbles. I made a smaller (ringer) quartz marble around .74” which is within regulations for the marble game of Ringer. The marble ended up so small due to issues getting it round. Some really like to fight but I have lost my touch when it comes to shaping cubes in any shape besides a cylinder. I was trying to regain this skill but have hardly used it. I’ve made somewhere around 75 marbles and most have been made from cylinders. The second marble is made from a the prized yellow (though I don’t consider it butterscotch) material I found. I believe it is either my last cube or next to last of this material. Original goal was for it to be around .80, but I had a bad spot in the material that had to be ground away. In the end it’s a .78 marble which is around the size I prefer to play Rolley Hole with. I left the finish rough since that’s what I seen to be leaning towards when it comes to playing marbles. I’ll probably hang onto this one since the material is so rare, and it’ll help with teaching people marbles.

Decided to do some more marble work and made a roughly .98 or so marble. Since the material would probably be no good for Rolley Hole, there wasn’t a reason to make it to spec. This material is more material from Roane County, I think from the Clinch River not far from where it merges with the Tennessee River. The area I found this stuff is part of the Watts Bar impoundment I believe, so 80 years ago it was likely farmland. The quartz nodules or pieces here (I don’t really think these are considered nodules) have a black exterior while other areas have brown, yellow, or grey. These 4 marbles are made from material found in Roane County. The top marble and the left marble are from the area near K25. They came from one of those delightful little streams that has a bunch of signs that say the fish will give you cancer. The right reddish marble is from material found on the family farm. I guess it’s some kind of Jasper, but it’s hard to tell. Light slightly passes through it so safest bet is to just cal it chalcedony and move on. It’s a fragile material. Bottom marble is the one I made today. Photos are hard to take of these but they’re all pretty neat marbles. They are very layered and faulted except for todays marble, so none are any good. I would consider them microcrystalline due to how the material breaks and has a sandy textire when broken. I might make some more tomorrow. I have a marble that’s going to make an amazing shooter and good teaching marble if it will shape up. Some marbles like to fight. You’ll have it seemingly good and then it’s .05 or more off. Once it’s fixed and smoothed out it’s back to being off.

It’s Friday, which means it’s marble day. I have a couple more marbles I might get to, but here’s two that are “finished”. I polished them a bit and am thinking of unpolishing one of them. When some marbles are polished, they have an uneven finish due to the structure of the material. When the same marble is rough, everything looks more uniform. The marble on the left is from the Emory River in Kingston, while the one on the Right is from Overton County. The marble on the right is from a nodule I was told was “no good”, but have gone on to make several good marbles and a few bad ones. Here’s a better picture of the Emory River marble. Structure-wise it looks like the other material in this area. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s easy to tell what pieces I have that are from the Emory River. The color is usually slightly yellow, with lots of white specs. The material also seems slightly less dense and more porous. The marble I just made is on the left, and one made by the local Mr.Carr is on the right. If I tossed it in with the boxes of marbles he gives to the kids, it would be impossible for anyone to tell it apart. Anyways, there’s still some time today for more marbles.

Here’s the marbles for today. All are unfinished but one I have in that .80 ballpark. The difficulty I have now with making marbles is setting an end goal when it comes to size and finish. Players have their favorite size and finish, so it’s hard to settle on what to do when I don’t have a player in mind. What I’m thinking is getting all works in progress to that .80, then setting them aside if they’re good shooting marbles. From there they can be finished however a player wants them. Marbles that aren’t for play can be finished however I want them. For more decorative marbles where the goal is to show the beauty and faults in the material, I’m thinking of making them/leaving them larger around the .85-.90 mark, and polishing them up. As a side note, as I’ve learned the game I’ve had many changes in what kind of marble I like. When I was still at Standing Stone, a coworker and I would shoot marbles and found our shots to be more accurate with smaller ones. As time went on I think what happened was our smaller marbles were more gritty and controllable while the larger marbles were always polished up.

The local Jasper, or what I think is Jasper, has a lot of issues. I have some nice smaller pieces I’ve tumbled which look pretty cool, but with marbles this material is no good. Every piece I find is very cracked up/fractured so it’s no good for marbles.

Here was todays project. I got my new bushings fitted into this old “polishing head” or grinder depending on who you ask. Took a little bit of old school fighting and force to get the old ones out and the new ones in. Now it runs smooth and quiet. Total cost was like $8.00 from the local hardware store. A regular bench grinder is pretty expensive, though there is a ton of used options online. For the price of my 3 grinders, 3 motors, and gas engine I could have had a single bench grinder from the hardware store. Back in the day a bench grinder would have been an expensive luxury for the guys around here. External arbors powered by electric motors were used, as far as I can tell, to cut costs and to make use of old electric washing machine “laundry” motors. Bud Garret was one of the many people to use standard laundry motors. Facebook marketplace often has a good selection of “grandads old grinder” listings that have the same setup of a washing machine motor, old grinder arbor, and a household electric switch. Apaprently I can’t upload videos, but there is a drawback to the dust from marbles. My motor will no longer start automatically when power is applied. I either have to wrap a rope around it and use that as a pull cord to spin it, or use an electric drill. These washing motors do not have a starting capacitor but do have centrifugal clutches and starting coils. Best I can figure, the dust has messed with my motor. When it’s blown out with an air compressor/ taken apart and cleaned, it’ll start usually. No point in cleaning it out. The bearings are sealed so dust can’t grind the shafts. Once it’s going it’s going. So if anyone has grandads old tools laying around, think about making some marbles. It’s not too hard.

A difficult question to answer actually. I only use local material and call most of it “quartz”. What it really is is Chalcedony. Materials such as Agate, Jasper, and Chert (to name a few) are also Chalcedony. Agate is banded Chalcedony, Jasper is opaque but colorful chalcedony, and chert is brown/grey/black Jasper which is… Chalcedony. That’s my understanding of it anyways. Not only am I always confused about it, I confuse everyone else. This is cryptocrystalline material while other material is microcrystalline (and will break). So. What this is is cryptocrystalline Chalcedony from a stream in Overton County Tennessee. Since it is yellow/orange it likely came in contact with elements such as Iron while it was forming. The darker this material is, the more foreign non-silica material it came in contact with during formation. Hopefully this helps. I confuse myself quite a bit regarding material.

Only finished one marble today. This one was done from start to finish. I had some other marbles to spin but didn’t get all that far with them. Once a marble is round and smooth, it takes forever to get it down to size. Also, this material is not “butterscotch”. I’d more consider it yellow than the real candy-looking butterscotch.