RolleyHoleMan

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.

Here’s a process that’s been an experiment. Many of the makers use rock tumblers to polish marbles, though I don’t know if they use a vibratory tumbler or a normal rotary tumbler. These marbles I’m trying to keep nice and round, but I don’t care all that much since they are tiny. The tan marble is a “youth” marble I found, but the others are all marbles made from small pieces that either started small, or were cubes which broke. So far some are polishing up better than others. What I didn’t take into account is that some marbles were starting out at different grits, so some will take longer. Also these are alone in the tumbler. What I’ve done is used a glass mason jar as the barrel, and the marbles all sit next to each other and roll on the bottom of the jar. The gently rub and bump which keeps them turning and not shaping like footballs. End goal is just to see how polished they can get. They would make a cool ringer set, though that’ll take 6 more marbles.

It is always sad to hear news like this, but the work these guys did helped keep the game going along with the craft. I never would have thought when I started working for parks that I would be involved in something like this. It seems like a family out here which I try to stress to people who wonder why Rolley Hole. It's not just a game, but a community out here. During the last few days I counted my marbles the best I could, and have now made over 50. It's hard to keep track sometimes but I think the count is around 55 or more, with more to come.

I did some marble making today, and made two smaller marbles under .75. I made a mistake when measuring these out initially but decided to keep on with it. Today though, I unfortunately have to share the news of the passing of one of the most well-known marble makers and players. Mr. Malcolm Strong passed away at age 88 today. Malcolm was instrumental in keeping the marble game of "Tennessee Square" alive, and had a personal yard dedicated to keeping it going. For those who have attended Rolley Hole and do not know him, he was always seen smoking a pipe, even at the last Rolley Hole. His obituary is to be found here: https://www.uptonfuneralhome.com/obituary/Malcom-Strong

Depending on where you are in Kentucky, it might be fun to look into "Rolley Hole" which is big in Tompkinsville. There's lots of resources online including in this forum.

Georgia is home to "Georgia Rolley Hole". Might be something to look into. Welcome from East Tennessee!

I do a similar thing of leaving marbles, but I was working in a marble themed state park. When people rent out pavilions near the marble yard, I usually tried to leave marbles around for the kids to try. Usually they would start throwing them or something, but with a little guidance they get the idea. You might want to try adding some directions for simple marble games. I find people doing all sorts of things and getting frustrated when the game they created isn't what they were after. Directions for "ringer" or plain school yard type games always helps.

Doing some organizing and rounded up some marbles for a photo. These are all pieces (I think) of a quartz nodule that one of the marble makers here said was no good. The section he cut into had a small sand pit but when I had a wack at it, the rest of the material was pretty great. This particular nodule did have a sandy exterior which is usually a thing to be worried about. You want a nice smooth exterior, with brown being the best crust to look for. Sand on the outside means sand on the inside. The photo of the marble and the cube is from a piece of material one of the locals found. He had someone cut it up and was told it was no good. It’s an odd color and the laser doesn’t shoot through it like other material, but it seems just fine.

Here is two more marbles. The butterscotch one is from a piece of material that came from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The smaller piece I believe came from Byrdstown but I can’t recall.

Just a few more marble pictures! My gas engine again is giving me trouble so I have only been able to make one new sphere which I haven’t gotten to get. I removed the carb and cleaned it, and also messed with the governor assembly on the motor. I sure hate the idea of replacing the engine with an electric motor, but for reliability I might have to. I’m against letting gas engines sit but this one has been fighting me a good bit and may have to be stored away for a while. Anyways, I will probably not do any marble work tomorrow. I’ve got a job interview Thursday and need to keep my hands more clean. Spinning marbles is tough on the hands and I ended up wearing my thumb down to where I can’t really use it for marbles.

Today my marble machine broke down again so I took apart the gasoline engine and at least cleaned it out, plus gave it an oil change. The oil was dark black which sure isn’t good, and the inlet valve sure needs lapped I think. Today I went about 15 miles away and started finding some pretty cool material. If I had a saw I sure could make some pretty marbles, but some of the material I don’t know how well it would hold up. Seems the quartz here is more grainy with a sandy texture. What I I did find was some wonderful small butterscotch. It’s all cracked up, but I might make a cracked marble out of it. Regardless it gives me some hope when it comes to finding material out this way.

Here’s a marble I’ve been working on. With this particular material I only have 2 cubes since it was a small nodule and the guy who cut it for me (as per our deal) got half of it. I was really surprised it even made 4 cubes due to the tiny size. For a while I had a big shelf of rocks at the park and a couple marble makers would go through it and pick what should be tried. It helped me learn what was good and how most of what I grabbed wasn’t ideal. Anyways the cube is amazingly pretty and the marbles I saw made with it were very nice as well. I’ll have to dig for a photo of those. One of the marbles made with it was the marble used to win Rolley Hole this year which is pretty cool, so it’s top notch material. I’m going to keep one of the marbles made from it, and haven’t cut on the other cube yet. It’s a hard thing to do because it’s an awesome educational tool to have a cube and a marble made from that cube. Sizing is also difficult since I can’t decide what size to make it. I have it at .80 on the dot. I was kinda thinking .78 but man having a .80 on the dot is also pretty cool. All the way around with some high end calipers it’s .80 all the way. Figured I’d share it. I was working on another marble that had shallow cracks in it, and I was removing those cracks (or so it seems), and it launched from my hands and after an hour or so of looking for it in the garage it hasn’t turned up. It’s the second marble that’s been lost this way and it’s kinda a pain because for demonstration you can’t keep launching marbles all over the place.

I'm starting to move my marbles to Etsy and will be lowering prices a bit. It just takes a bunch of time and I must admit, I'm not very motivated on it. My etsy: https://vintagetsp.etsy.com Maybe one day I'll get to sell marbles at Rolley Hole. That may be the best way to go. With the online stuff I miss the idea of getting to talk about Rolley Hole because I'm more into wanting to spread the game than make some dollars.