wvrons

Very possible hand gathered Akro slag. But I also think possible CAC hand gathered slag.

The top one looks like god chance of Champion. First time I have heard of Peltier Rainbo machines. Did Peltier also have Comic marble machines or Banana cat marble machines, etc. A different machine for each type or style marble. Plus they would needed to have a different marble machine for each different size of that type or style. A marble machine just makes the hot glass glob round. I am sure you could make a Banana cat eye on the same marble machine that made any Rainbo. All the Jabo swirls were made on old original Vitro machines that made patches or ribbon and patch marbles. I have myself made swirls or patches or ribbon and patch marbles on the same exact marble machine. A marble machine does not make any one certain type style or design marbles. That all happens before the hot glass glob hits the marble machine rollers.

It can be important to save these older articles for the future. Many post made on marble chat boards will never be found in any marble books. David is not doing very good health wise right now. Thanks Steph.

LOL I found out his winter that my laptop could not fly. Also did not help that I forgot to unplug the cord. So I have a new one, which is ok, but the newness will wear off. I also found out several years ago that my desktop tower did not have wings. Maybe the second story window to the concrete patio did not have enough uplift draft ? They need to add wings or a fast opening parachute on these things. It is a throw away society today. The throw part is the fun part.

I will see collector friends from your state and area next week at the Decatur IL marble show. I also once said that I would not sell higher dollar marbles. But I have done it, as I got more numbers of them, the same ones and got much older. Some up to $2000.00 each. You have collected before, so you know what works for you. A good thing about marbles is that all of see something different with the same marble. We are all different and collect in different ways for thousands of reasons. Marbles has had so many different rewards for me for many years. Good luck and marble on !!

They are Jabos for myself, made with the wrong temperature during some problem, which is frequent.

I don't think the over one inch were any kind of experiment. About all or all makers who had a one inch machine made some marbles over the one inch roll size. MK, Vitro, Alley and others have made marbles over one inch. They were not experiments. Another old myth. Every machine roll size at some point during a run will make marbles just a little under and a little over the actual roll groove size. If the stream coming from the furnace through the shear gets a little small or large the marble size changes. The operator will adjust the furnace hot glass stream flow size sometimes often to keep it the correct size to match the roll groove size. Most of the oversize as seen in the picture above will have orange peel, a roll mark or slightly out of round. Because the hot glass glob did not fit the roll groove correctly. Many things can affect or change the size of the glass stream coming out of the furnace. To hot and the stream thins and gets smaller. To cold and the stream slows and gets to large for the roll groove. Just below the furnace outlet is a flat or curved or V piece of metal that works in and out manually like a gate or valve. This piece of metal is moved in or out to close or open the flow more coming out of the furnace. We cut the flow back many times at Jabo with a 5/8 machine and made pee wee marbles. But 30-50% would have roll marks because the flow was to small for the roll groove. Roll marks are not always cold roll marks as people say or type. Cold roll marks are usually only during start up, after a machine has sat not running any glass across it and cooled completely. Roll marks happen frequently and several different things can cause them. When they happen it is the operators job to correct it and fast. When the marbles get undersize or oversize it is the operators job to correct it and fast. Because the marbles are non standard product. Non standard product, not a experiment. The word experiment is used to drive the price up. When a marble dealer says experiment around me, my red flags go up. One or two or more things, they want to get more money than usual. Or they have never spent any hours watching machine made marbles being made. Or they will not give up on old myths that make no sense. Marbles were cheap kids toys. Not a penny each. Experiment word is easy to use because no one can explain what that was or means. Most so called marble making experiments have explanations. Most were just non standard production or mistakes that just happened and then they made it into steady production. Just putting another thought out there on what I think is a old myth. Everyone will make up their own mind. But look at over one inch machine made marbles and look for orange peel, roll mark, or slightly out of round. Were they doing experiments trying for orange peel, roll mark, or slightly out of round ??? Just one more marble myth for me that I try to give a explanation for that might be possible. But old thoughts and beliefs are almost impossible to change. Once it is in print it is the absolute truth. But ask for the proof. I have never stopped asking. But I have got many answers that I am satisfied with, that make sense to me.

Like you said Ric. I also remember probably every few seconds of that. I remember exactly where each one of us were standing. The fist time that I know of hearing Sunny Sky. I assume it is the blue base with white and yellow swirl. I have them but did not know they were named. It goes right along with the Blue Sky, Blue lady, and Stormy Sky(which you named), and Sunny Sky. Sunny Sky it is for me from now on.

My favorite is a Sulfide with a sheep insert. It belonged to my grandmother. It sat always in the same place on her desk, in her living room. I played with that marble as far back as I can remember. No doubt I added to several of its wounds. Every time I got the marble off her desk, she always told me "make sure you put that back when you are done playing". I did just that, I put it back in the exact same spot every time. When she passed away many years ago, I got that marble.

Alley did sell all the above and all the above have been dug at the factory sites. The Carnivals have been found in 100 count Sure Shot boxes A year or two ago. The Halloweens all the color combinations have also been found in 100 count Sure Shot boxes within the last few weeks. The entire box was purchased by Nola at the recent WVMCC meeting. I remember when Bill got the first five Carnivals that I had ever seen. It was at the WVMCC show in Vienna WV. Six of us were outside together. The seller had no idea what they were. Rick Hall and Kevin Plummer were asking me who made them ? Kevin thought Peltier, Rick thought Champion. Bill ask me and I said some WV swirl Co but I did not know which one. Bill thought they were Peltier. So before Kevin Plummer or Rick Hall could buy them, Bill told the seller sold. At what we all thought was a very high price. Bill had to leave and go to the ATM nearby. He asked me to stay with and watch the five marbles. He came back and paid the seller. The seller found them together in a garage at Cairo WV. He was cleaning out the garage for a fee and or the contents. Bill said he could not wait to get back to IL to show these to Gino, Chuck G. and other Peltier collectors. Then after that he called me and said "Ron these are not Peltiers". I agreed and said they were from a WV swirl company. Just a few months later I saw three of the same which the late JIm Davis had dug under the Alley factory building at Pennsboro WV. Jim Davis was the first person to ever dig marbles under the Pennsboro Alley building. Jim's son the last I knew still had at least two of those Carnivals. I also was a lucky man to receive a Carnival as a generous gift from Bill. It was my first one and will stay with me always. A few more Carnivals have come into collectors hands. When Bill dug the black and orange at Pennsboro he yelled out I am calling this Halloween. The just shortly after that he dug the black and orange cullet and then the black, orange and white cullet and after that he found one black, orange and white marble. The next day I dug a black and orange which I held up and said a Halloween. My gift Alley Carnival Halloween's and cullet dug by Bill. 1935, 100 count Sure Shot box like the ones that contained Alley Carnival's and another with Alley Halloween variety of marbles. Guess who took the picture of that guy above in the camo. He finally wore out and destroyed that camo. He had me burn it on top of a brush pile. He said it should stay in WV. Now you have the rest of the story. A condensed version.

Careful buying unknown ? You can end up with thousands of marbles worth $100.00 total or less. It is easy to buy, hard to learn. Learning marbles takes both. lots of effort and time. Buying is fast fun and easy if you have plenty of funds. But with time the buying can end up with more money invested than what the marbles are worth. Learning can be just time and effort, no dollars cost. Would you buy a car not knowing what year, who made it, the wear or mileage, or value, etc. A car is a larger investment. But many small investments can add up to a large one. I have searched antique stores from FL to Maine to TX to KS, for 25 years and 98% of the marbles in jars at antiques stores are what experienced collectors do not want in their collections any longer. Damaged old or newer low or no value marbles. Many times they are mixed or salted with a few damaged vintage marbles and newer marbles. Almost all Antique stores have a jar of marbles. Some have several jars from the same seller in different booths or locations in the store. On average once a year, you may find a jar for $10.00 or $20.00 that has marbles that are worth double the total price. Buying numbers of common marbles is not a good investment with marbles. Buy the very best you can afford. The better higher dollar marbles sty the same or most increase in value. The common marbles stay the same or many go down in value. It is much easier to sell one marble for $100.00 than sell 100 for $1.00 each.

Your marble is a MK pee wee. Not a Akro pee wee Sweat Pea. Different companies made pee wee size marbles. Not many pee wee marbles have names.

That's it. My spelling is some off, Oils or Oyl's. My typing skill is worse than my spelling. People better not expect proper spelling and grammar, if they want me to reply. Most times I manage to get the point across, LOL .

When photographing a white marble or marble with lots of white. Use a different color background other than white. A smooth or very light texture background works best. The twist in or on the marble looks like the twist of the background. Several people use a light gray T-shirt as a background. Do not use something with a pattern or action going on for the background. Many times cameras will focus on the background rather than the marble. Two keys for marble pictures, background and lighting, lighting, lighting.

Marble King. MK produced lots of small marbles over many years, patch & ribbon plus cat eyes. Sizes from 1/2-7/16-3/8 5/16-to 1/4 inch. What size is it ? A Vitro of any kind at pee wee size or smaller is rare. Akro made a few pee wee's, but not big numbers or steady. Most were patch marbles. If a Akro Popeye box set is original, it will have a Akro pee wee patch in the compartment with the bag. It is rare to see the pee wee in the Popeye box sets. Two employee's said they packaged the one pee wee in each Popeye box set. If you check Roger Hardy's collection of several different Popeye box sets. Each Popeye box set has the Akro pee wee included. The pee wee was named, the same name as Popeye and Olive Olis baby. I am brain dead right now. ?????

Jabo tank wash.

Ric I agree your three are Heatons. Some have the orange and white looping or S or C on one side and some it twist more around the marble.

Some of the Heaton banana cats have crystal clear glass. But some also have the bubbles(seedy)glass. I think Peltier has most all of theirs with crystal clear glass. If Jack made the Heaton banana cats, that explains the seedy glass.

Maybe a Jabo tank wash marble. The size fits. The colors fit. The fold fits. The Jabo butt crack fits. But only one view ???????

Definitely machine made and definitely not Leighton transitional marbles. The glass temperature got to hot causing the gas bubbles and the colors to go dark, plus make them out of round. Your first single marble picture shows the automated machine made cut line well. Every marble company would have discarded these marbles, as not for sale. They are either Champion or Jabo swirls. I have seen marbles from every place you can think of that were untouched for 50-75 years. Included in them 98% of the time were Jabo's or a Jabo that was made when I was present at the machine making the marble at Jabo. I offer to sell them some of the same marbles as they have at 0.10-0.25 cents each, and they decline. It happens almost monthly for the last 15 years. They are your marbles label them what ever you like. Most experienced marble collectors are not going to think these were hand gathered and hand made by Leighton. Did who ever identified them offer to buy them at normal Leighton prices ? Even bad condition Leighton prices ?

The round piece is where the glass flow out of the furnace to the shear. The glass falls or flows maybe 3 to 8 inches straight down to the top of the shear block. The shear is two hallow blocks of steel with holes for the glass to enter and exit. The shear blocks are hallow in order to be water cooled. The shear needs to be water cooled , steady flow of cool water to prevent the steel blocks from warping. Between the two steel shear blocks is the flat shear blade. The shear blade runs flat horizontal back and forth fast. The shear blade can be timed faster or slower. The shear blade makes on cut as it begins across the block and a second cut just before it exits or reach the opposite side of the shear blocks. Then it returns to the original side where it started, and making two cuts on the return trip The shear blade is sandwiched between the two steel shear blocks. The shear blade makes two cuts for each marble. The shear blade makes four cuts, for two marbles, on a single pass across and return back across the shear blocks. Then each glass glob falls into a cup or chute towards the marble machine rollers, about 16 to 24 inches away. One glob goes to the left roll and the other glob goes to the right roll. All at 250 per minute. Snap your fingers 250 per minute. Everything happens fast. Marbles per minute was always the number one concern, and still is. Marbles per minute was a higher concern than quality control, colors or designs. When problems occur it is fast and often. Many places for problems to happen from the glass going into the furnace, until the marbles are cool. Everything, steel, furnace bricks, etc. is 800 to 2000 degrees F. Most things are moving in different directions, plus the constant noise and fumes. Not easy to explain just a portion of the process. There were different types of shears. Some of the older styles were more like scissors blades. Some were very complicated. The above info about a shear, is one of the more simple methods with good speed. A new shear set up like above todays cost new is about $7000.00-$10,000 , just the shear. Now if you view a U tube video of machine made marbles being made. You will notice the shear blade going back and forth cutting the hot glass stream coming from the furnace outlet orifice or furnace bushing.

The last two items are the round furnace outlet orifice cup. The long pointed item is known as a plunger. The plunger would work up and down as needed to help force the glass flow into the furnace outlet the outlet orifice cup or furnace bushing as marble makers call it. As you can see the last marbles ran through this furnace outlet were clear base, transparent green and white swirls. For some reason, blue and green can do what they call take over the furnace or tank. A small amount of blue or green will color 5 to 10 times the numbers of marbles as the same amount of other colors. When I would add blue and sometimes green at Jabo. I was reminded often do not use as much blue or green as normal with other colors. Add 1lb. of blue and make marbles with blue for 45 minutes. Add 1lb. of yellow, brown or orange, and make those marbles for 15 minutes. Add 1lb. of red and make red marbles for 5 minutes or one minute. When you find or dig old furnace bricks anyplace they are most often coated with blue coloring or glass and some with green coating or glass. I have plungers and orifice cups from Akro and others. I have a Alley furnace outlet orifice cup. Not all companies used the plunger system. Some relied on gravity flow only. You can see in the first picture that the green and white color going into the furnace outlet is more of a straight line flow. As the flow exits the outlet in picture two, you can see the green and white beginning to twist to make a swirl type marble. The longer distance this glass stream falls to the shear the more twist it will have. Most swirl marbles were made with a longer hot glass stream to the shear than patches and ribbon marbles. As the stream is sheared and it folds over on itself on the shear blade, it twist more again making the swirl twist. Most swirl marbles do not show cut lines. With most swirls the cut line is folded over into the inside of the marble. After sheared the then elongated red hot glass glob falls into a cup or down a chute to the marble machine rolls which rounds the glob into a marble.

Jack Bogard told me he produced the banana cat eyes. I know for sure also that Jack packaged his marbles and old Heaton stock in old original Heaton bags. The largest percentage of all the banana cats dug at Heaton were shallow and close the building. So I think Jack probably made most if not all the banana cat eyes at the Heaton site. If you see a bag of Heaton banana cat eyes, better grab it. They are very rare to find. The single color ones are very difficult to separate from Peltier. The Heaton banana is usually just a little smaller.

I heard lumber had increased 80% in price the last three months. But I have not seen the price of timber increase any. If timber prices increase 80%, I may get my bigger chain saw out of retirement ? Maybe lumber is going to be like toilet paper ?

No name that I know of. I think they were made in the 1970's. I think Brandstetter had several.