Do Corkscrews Have To Have Perfect Corks?

[manylittle]

I have two different corkscrews. One is a lemonaide that has a beginning that looks just like the end of a wrench, and then the handle of that wrench spirals around the marble from top to bottom, just like a obedient corkscrew...only that top wrench head is naughty. The next one is a limeaide and in that one, the spiral seems to start out normally but seems to thin out on the other end and it does connect with the spiral on the other end but it is obvious that it is running into a second spiral. .Hard to explain. I'm gonna show both mibs to you here and then tell me if I can still legitimently list them as corkscrews even with the deviations that they show. Look closely at the limeaide as it was the hardest to photograph to show the aspect that I am talking about. Thanks so much for all of the help that you give me. Believe me, this 'newbie' needs it. I've put hundreds of hours into studying marbles and thought I knew a lot but some of you guys are mountains ahead of me in knowledge. I am awestruck at the number of hours you must have put into your studies. I think that three pics are enough to show the problem with the lemonaide cork so will devote most of the space to the limeaide one. Have lit it with a flashlight to show it more clearly. Second and third shows beginning of the spiral. That looks like what a normal cork would look like. The other end looks like a spiral starting out that has two tails. Those tails taper out and meet the ending point of the spiral from the other end. At least everything is going in the same direction. I am going to take some different pics as the ones I have do not show the anomaly clearly enough. The first .green pic shows the ending of the first spiral that starts in pics two and three.

[manylittle]

The new pics might take a while, so bear with me. Thanks, Vicki

[Steph]

Some people don't call Akro Ades corkscrews at all because they're so often swirly.

I might still use "corkscrew" in my description somewhere. But you almost don't need to because the collectors' name -- Akro Lemonade or Akro Limeade -- is such a clear identifier of the marble type

There are differing opinions about when they were made and where the swirliness tended to occur along their timeline. I think they were introduced early on. Maybe in 1930. And it is believed that they were swirly then -- which would explain why Moss Agates were said to have "exquisite patterns". But they were still being sold in packaging which was patented years later.

This package was advertised as "new" in 1935. Do these look swirly?

And I think they were also sold in 1936 Popeye packaging. Hard to see some of these might be Ades but I think they were and not hard to see that they're swirly.

[manylittle]

I took these pics with a black light as a flash setting with no light just did not show the problem good enough and a regular flash was too bright. I think you can see where the spiral from the bottom meets up with the top part of the marble. I moved the marble just a little each picture so that you could see the progression. Do I call this a cork, a messed up cork, a wanna be cork or a not a cork at all, cork? lol Thanks with your help on these two marbles. I want to put these two along with another cork, a green cork on a milky greenish base, translucent, that also fluoresces that bright Vaseline green under a black light, together in an auction. They are all 5/8 and in near mint condition. Thanks again, for all of your help.

[Steph]

I wouldn't call it wannabe or messed up. That implies there's something less or wrong about it. But that's a normal state for that style of marble.

If you're having trouble trying to decide whether to call it a corkscrew or not, then just say Lemonade or Limeade. In my opinion.

It's understood that they won't necessarily be standard corks.

Maybe someone else will have a different opinion or something more helpful to say.

[manylittle]

Some of those in the box look more swirly than others. Would the fifth mib from the left, top row be called a cherryaide? and the far right one bottom row, does that have a name? Thanks for that insight into the swirlyness of aides. It helps to see them in a box and it also helps to hear from people who know much more about the history of the making of these mibs, than what I will absorb in a lifetime. Thanks so very much from the tippy top of my heart !!!

[Steph]

I'll have to leave those questions to someone else. Beyond Lemonade and Limeade I'm not that good with collectors' names for the different Moss Agates.

[jeeperman]

I am in agreement with Steph, and am one whom would not include the word corkscrew unless both ends ended properly. The ones that blow out into a swirl pattern would not be a corkscrew. Nice Visi-pak. =]

[lstmmrbls]

most of the semi corkscrew ades have a section of glass that protrudes off to the side(branchlike) of the stream and it also rarely ends as a corkscrew. I believe they were made with a spinning cup before the installation of the center rod over the cup that allowed the formation of true corkscrews. That machine was probably kept in use resulting in the continued production in the semi corking Moss Agates(Ades)??