RolleyHoleMan

I’ve not had time for marbles, but hopefully will be able to change that tomorrow. Right now I may have a lead on a rock saw. The owner isn’t very responsive and being Facebook marketplace, I’ve not got high hopes. However if it works out I will be able to really start cutting material properly and hopefully making better marbles with a better selection of material. My current saw is a table saw fitted with a rock blade. What little work I’ve done with it has caused this saw to rust out pretty badly. I also broke the mount for the motor and have it loosly fitted. Because of this, the blade often stops with a little bit of pressure. Anyways we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime I found some local stuff and for $20 I have built a more portable setup which runs pretty quiet. My current setup is large and loud due to the cart and bad bearings in the grinder causing chattering. The plans with the mobile setup is to take it to the park I’ve been assigned, plus it’ll go to some in services to teach people how to make marbles.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to get to marbles, so here’s 4 that are in the process. Two of these I would consider “finished” if I wanted to leave them with a rough finish and bigger, while the other two are still in the process of becoming round. These are still much bigger than most marbles I make, and I don’t really have a solid size picked out for these. The two darker and more patterned marbles are from material found in Roane County in the Emory river/ watts bar area. I often have said the material is no good in this area, but these I have some hope for. Geologically the area I’ve been picking from is not going to be the best since it is mostly flooded bottomland hardwood and farm land from the 1930s or so. What that means is these pieces were not subjected to the weathering and wear that normally would break apart the weaker material. When going through streams (old streams) in other areas, you’ll find broken pieces all over the place. Among those broken pieces you’ll find that nice good worn nodule that has that extra toughness to survive, or that’s at least how I look at it. In Roane county the quartz is often more microcrystalline than cryptocrystalline, meaning the structure is more blocky, less dense, and more fragile. Durability isn’t something expected from 90% or more of the material found out here. The pieces that could be durable usually have tons of sand deposits and other issues making them no good. Anyways that’s enough rock talk. Here’s some photos. I need to sort and list some marbles on Etsy at some point. What’s been most enjoyable is that there’s been people messaging me and ordering marbles who were originally from the area where Rolley Hole is played. It’s kept me pretty busy but has been enjoyable to be able to send out marbles while keeping Rolley Hole alive.

Here’s some work from today. I’m still working on a couple seemingly solid shooter marbles, but did complete a marble from the Emory River here in Tennessee. As is normal for this material, it’s full of faults and issues that make it no good for shooting. I did accidentally drop it on concrete which is survived, but I was holding my breath as it bounced across the floor. I have another piece in the works that was found in the same area, but it’s white. I don’t know how good it’ll be but there is a fault that needs to be ground out. The material out here is no good, so it looks like the only option is to go back to Overton county at some point looking for more.

Here’s some poor photos of some rocks I’ve been tumbling. What I’ve started to do it if a piece is no good for marbles, it’ll get tumbled. These still had too much haze so they had to go back into the tumbler. I’m working on some more marbles, with one being from quartz found a few miles from home in the Emory River. There’s a small crack that may be able to be removed but there’s a long way to go. At some point I may list some more marbles but haven’t gotten around to it. My marble machine has gotten some extreme use and the bushings are starting to cause chatter. For normal work this isn’t an issue, but if I get to demonstrate, this machine needs to be as silent as possible. It’s hard to demonstrate and talk to let people know what you’re doing and why. Back to the tumbled pieces, some were used for marbles I’ve made and I have a ton that need to go into the tumbler. Polishing them up will help show people materials and what to look for / what is no good.

Here’s a couple more from today. The brown marble is from a piece sent to me by Matthew who makes marbles in Utah. I need to ask what it is. Then other marble is from a very interesting sandy piece found in Overton County Tennessee, and it was more of a “can I make a marble from this”. The piece was very risky and my other cubes from it have more sand it seems, but it made a nice TN square marble. I did polish it a good bit just to see inside it.

That’s one of the main things with marbles. You can take pictures all day long but you can never really capture a marble the way your eyes can. My quartz marbles have many cool things going on inside them which is always hard to capture.

Been a while since I’ve done an update. Lately I’ve not had much for time so I’ve not been making marbles all that much. I did spend a few hours today making some more cubes for marbles, though none of the material is really all that great. Latley I’ve been working a new job and have been spreading Rolley Hole among my coworkers and have gotten some mild interest. What most people are interested in is the geology and tumbled scraps. Cutting all this material leaves a lot of small quartz scraps I’ll be sharing here when they’re done. Currently I’m up to 68 completed marbles, and I’ve given around 20 away. As another update I’ve made another belt driven rig for marble making that’s extremely portable, though the local hardware store I buy belts from put all their belts in storage so it can’t be completed for a while. Tomorrow I might pull out the machine and see about making some more rough spheres, and hopefully I’ll get back into making spheres of the proper size. My goal before May is to have made 100 marbles, and have a stock of them in time for Rolley Hole. It also seems like a good idea to donate 4 of them to Standing Stone for marble teaching. Anyways here’s some photos.

In 2010, Jabo had their last Ohio Run, or that is what I'm seeing online. Oddly there isn't much information about it, but some slightly older resources say they were making mainly industrial marbles. Marble king is all that remains. Looks like when the time comes they'll be the best bet.

Thank you. I know Temu and aliexpreess are likely not going to be allowed due to state things. I used to order items for the State and there’s a big bunch of mess and approval. I don’t know how we’d go about obtaining marbles for sure, but it would have to be from something the state allows. moonmarble had some wonderful things but the cost is way more than what we charge for marbles. 80-90 marbles for $12 seems a bit steep, but then again I’m approximating using our vague system. We sell marbles using Vienna sausage cans, and one can is $3.00. It might work out actually now that I think about it, but we would need to fill 25 gallon totes full of marbles for the marble hunt.

Hey all, got a question here. I used to work for Standing Stone State Park which is home to the National Rolley Hole marbles championship. You all have probably seen my constant posting about my marbles and Rolley Hole. I no longer work there, but sure am still into Rolley Hole and helping with the tournament. So, during Rolley Hole we sell glass marbles . We have all sorts of sizes and colors, and we also sell printed marbles both commemorative marbles and marbles with various logos (sports, gasoline memorabilia, characters, etc). What I’m looking for is a place that sells marbles in bulk. I’m not talking about a couple hundred, but several thousand. We need to replenish the stock and since these were acquired 20 years ago (with the exception of the donated printed marbles) we are running out. We also do not have any sources for new printed marbles and need a reliable printer/seller. If anyone has any resources or places they’ve bought from, I’d love to have any details. We probably have a couple years worth of marbles left, but once that supply is gone I don’t know what’s going to happen.

Here’s what I’ve been up to. I did realize one of my marbles is out of round. I kept looking at it and more and more it looked like a grape. I procrastinated fixing it by setting up my saw and trying to make some nice cubes. Some I may have made a little small. One thing I’ve learned is that making small cubes is a mistake for me. Some people prefer this though. You work carefully and make an orb quickly you can spin. What the masters don’t speak of is how hard it is to get the marble round without making it a very small size. For some I guess it’s not a stuggle, but for me it is. One of the old Rolley Hole videos has a man talking about how he likes to start with an orb about 1” in size, and then he spins it down to the size he wants. That may be a bit big for me, but I’m inpatient especially in the cold and having back pain from standing or sitting too long. Anyways, I used an old belt drive table saw with a tile saw blade to make these cubes. This saw actually has the nice bar on it to make straight cuts, so less material was wasted. What I got out of my piece was many nice white cubes. This piece was rejected by one of the marble makers, but it’s proven to be my nicest piece so far. I have another pice I’m eying to cut. I think I may work on cutting more and then make a massive amount of spheres to spin. This will keep me busy for a while. I used to wonder why the elderly players and makers were oddly sharp. It’s a physical and thinking art. Both playing and making are pretty heavy thinking things. One park guest asked me what I thought about when making marbles. Often I have a podcast or something going, but the most honest answer is (which I gave them) is I think about Rolley Hole.

Shot open two cans today. Krylon had a smaller clear marble, and the Rusto had a larger green marble.

I was working on repainting and restoring a vintage fan today, so I've got another can to shoot in the morning. It's another Krylon can so I'm expecting a steel ball instead of a marble... Also I don't know how many folks here paint things, but does anyone have experience with Krylon always discontinuing colors? I might not be able to finish my project because of this, and I've had to repaint vintage lanterns in the past due to this. Weird stuff.

Also on the clay marbles, be careful leaving them in anything for cleaning. I’ve heard of some materials dissolving. Clay marbles are also a touchy thing in some areas but the people here will be able to tell you much more. I’m from an area where many places used to sell clay marbles out of massive metal crocks. When I was a kid, these were sold as “authentic civil war marbles”. I have a few of them myself, but they are supposedly fakes. To this day I have people try to sell them to me.

All the marbles in the rig are ones made recently as well. Today I did cut a ton of material down so soon I’ll hopefully get back into making some marbles. There’s some very odd material found here locally that isn’t the best for play, but might make something amazingly cool looking. The scraps from cutting are also getting used in the rock tumbler. My tumbler is having some issues with a worn belt, but boiling the rubber belt in water did get it back into better condition. Everything in the tumbler right now has been in continuous run since December 12th. As for what the goal is with the tumbler, I have no idea. With some larger pieces they can be used for education to show good material. Smaller pieces are just in there to help with the tumbling action. In my other tumbler I have fine polish spinning some small marbles for display. The issue when polishing is all marbles were in different conditions and some had some deep scratches I didn’t account for, so as they’re checked these issues become more noticeable on some. As December goes on, my goal is to make as many marbles as I can before my new job starts up. I have interviews for bigger positions though my chances are slim to none, but all the traveling gives a reason to look for rocks in other areas.

Here’s a fun little display I’ve been using. I’m very bad at woodworking, but last year I made a few of these ringer rigs to have my own and to also give to other parks. Due to the size of the holes, it’s just right for displaying Rolley Hole marbles.

I checked that guys other listings and other items are fairly priced (I’m more of a junk man than a marble man, so I can’t speak on the other expensive marbles). The NPS boundary sign is pretty sweet. I think the seller posted it as satire. It’s like those Facebook marketplace adds making fun of car sales by posting a rotted car and saying “little rust, ran when parked, I know what I’ve got no lawballers”. Or more importantly it’s also like those adds where people post Cheetos shaped like weird things. Seeing the comment about the vintage bike collectors cracked me up. I’ve met some good ones, but most are nutty. Train people are usually the same.

With eBay international returns, usually they just refund you and forget it. I have had to open a few returns for various things, but always because I seemingly got someone else's order. Billy, I have been eyeing various stone marble lots on eBay in the past but had the worry they were glass. Mostly I can never get sellers (US and International) to respond to questions about cracks. Some agate material online looks like some good Rolley Hole marble material, same with some quartz listed online.

Got a cheap blade today and put it on my table saw. This isn’t the best way to go about cutting materials due to the extreme amount of dust and the lack of coolant for the blade. I whittled down a bunch of large chunks and cut some other pieces from small nodules. I was thinking of cutting a larger nodule here but decided against it. There’s a reason many lapidary saws are self-running/ cutting, and that reason is time. It can get boring trying to cut a big piece. Also for those interested in cutting materials, I am doing this the wrong way. I took the cheap quick way to roughly cut some cubes using a table saw for wood and a cheap blade from eBay.

Mostly I figure might as well pull a marble out of something I'm about to toss, plus its best for the guys picking up the trash that the cans have no pressure. It's also fun to show them to people when I'm talking about marbles. People sure are excited to see what the agitator in the can really is. I don't know why it seems to be a common thing around here, but when I was a kid I sure wanted to know what was in there.

This kinda cracked me up a little. I have not seen a marble in a hot water heater myself, but I have used marbles for plumbing repairs. Last winter I was working and living in a State Park that had some pretty lousy housing, with my house being a half-length single wide trailer from the 1970s. It was nice, but neglected. It got to -2 and my heat failed. Despite having the water running, I lost every inch of PVC pipe in the house. So when the thaw came, I had to stop water leaks by putting glass marbles in the end of my copper lines, then tightening them down with whatever the little connector is for attaching the copper to the PVC. Obviously I'm not a plumber... The main water shut off to the house was busted in a way that caused it to leak, so marbles really saved the day until I learned the house had two shut offs.

That sure is odd. I just opened another can using my air rifle, and sure enough it has a ball bearing in it instead. This was Krylon brand appliance epoxy. Anyone else out there have any spray-can marbles?

I've been curious how other people get them open. After giving myself a nasty cut the first time I tried this with a nail, I started shooting the can instead. Someone online was finding cats eye marbles in their cans which I haven't seen yet. At some point I have some cans of paint from the late 1990s that need to be finished off, so it'll be cool to see what they have in them. Most old cans of paint seem to be alright, but there's a few around here which either failed, or the nozzle broke off. Shooting those seems like a bad idea unless the neighbors wouldn't mind seeing a painted yard.

Here's something that may be of interest. I do a bit of spray painting and saw online a year or so ago how the "rattler" inside the can could possibly be a marble. As a kid I was always told they were ball bearings, which sometimes is true. So far I have gotten 6 very small clear marbles, 1 amber marble, and 1 blue marble. Somewhere I should have more of these but they may be mixed in with other marbles. What I have found is certain brands will use different agitators in their cans. Kyrlon I have found with marbles (paint) but ball bearings (primer). Brands like "VHT" very high temperature paint always seems to have ball bearings, same with Krylon high temp grill paint. Rustolium paint always has a marble. Getting the marble out is easy, however I cheat. When I have a can ready to be opened up, I take it out into the yard and I shoot it with an old Crosman 140 .22 air rifle. Sometimes I use it as target practice until I hit it one, other times I shoot it from maybe 10 feet away, and I shoot it through the bottom of the can. Once the can is punctured, I widen the hole and shake the marble out into a dish of kerosene to get the paint off. That's all there is to it. I'll try to knock off a can tomorrow of appliance epoxy.

I managed to find myself another washing machine electric motor for making marbles. I’m not sure how I’ll incorporate it, but what it does do is allow me to reinstall my other motor back into the table saw it came from. I have a cheap saw blade fcoming in the mail for cutting material. Since I don’t have the resources for a wet saw, I’ll have to use this dry and use it for whittling down some large pieces. It’ll take some wear off the Diamond wheel which is good since those wheels are a bit expensive. Another thing to think of is how far I’ll go in regards to a saw. With the extreme cost and no marbles sales on eBay and all that, I probably won’t get to it. Seems to be a bad area for used gear on marketplace as well. latley I’ve not been all that motivated for making marbles so I’ve slowed down a lot. I have maybe 20 unlisted marbles at the moment from when I was really cranking them out. When I get access to the “for sale” section I might just make a large post of a bunch of them. As a state employee I am not allowed to sell marbles at state functions so when I demonstrate, it’s forbidden. Stops corruption and all that which I’ve seen working at some parks. What I’d sure prefer over just selling marbles would be doing it while teaching about some good ole Rolley Hole.