Making Rolley Hole marbles this year

[RolleyHoleMan]

Here's the one marble I have posted. I think I have 3 others to get around to posting. Plus I think 3 more to finish. I have one that's a true shooting marble, and a couple that are more decorative. There's also one that is what I would say "used" to be an acceptable marble. That particular marble is the true white marble players love, but it has crystal "geode" pits, so some players wouldn't want to play with it. Those areas I think are softer, but some swear that the little open pits will cause drag and reduce accuracy. 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266528611775?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ruxIi_EfR8G&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=ruxIi_EfR8G&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[RolleyHoleMan]

Another thing I'm torn on is I really like making marbles to-order so someone gets a marble I chose from a cube from start to finish. With some people I can make them exactly what they want size and finish-wise. It really depends on what their plans are for the marble. A player would want a specific size while a collector may be more interested in just having a cool looking marble with no worries about the size. 

When I loan marbles, people will often miss a shot and tell me it's because it's not their marble. This can be because of size, finish, or both. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

Also I just ordered some new grinding blocks, though I took a risk with a cheaper website that may be a little sketchy, but reviews seem to be good. I have another site lined up where I also plan to order from. Cost sure does add up quick unfortunately which is the main reason for selling marbles. That plus not having a job is a bit of a pain there, though living with my folks again I don't have the expenses I once had. 

Sometime in the next few days I have to get back on moving junk out of my apartment so I will be away from marble making for a few days most likely, but before then I want to get some marbles listed to at least have them out there. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

Here are links to the marbles. I'm still working on more and trying to gauge interest. Seems like I'm sure not getting the views. 

Orangeish marble:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266528611775?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ruxIi_EfR8G&sssrc=2524149&ssuid=ruxIi_EfR8G&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

White marble:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266532476496?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ruxIi_EfR8G&sssrc=2524149&ssuid=ruxIi_EfR8G&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

Yellow almost butterscotch. This is a very hard to find material and color:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266532490073?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ruxIi_EfR8G&sssrc=2524149&ssuid=ruxIi_EfR8G&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

Brown marble with faults:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266532581383?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ruxIi_EfR8G&sssrc=2524149&ssuid=ruxIi_EfR8G&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

I'll leave them up and see what happens. I have 5 more marbles in various stages. I have 4 which look like they'll be fine shooting marbles, with the 5th having a crack. 

 

If my new grinding sticks work well and I can speed up the process I will make cheaper marbles. Currently I'm picking my nicer material. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

Here’s some fun material I made a marble out of. This stuff is super clear and was found in Byrdstown , TN. 
 

Byrdstown has a lot of nodules which are very clear, usually with a grey, white, black, or brown color. I’m not the best at explaining it, but this material looks like glass, or like candy. In the area I was looking, I saw a lot of smaller pieces of this stuff all with clear issues like faults and sand, but might as well see what it makes.

 The other marble I made is from material I found. All that was written in it was the date of 10/23/23, so I guess that’s when it was cut. This is from some of the last material I picked up, and it sure made a nice marble. The marble may get cut down a little since it’s .80, but it’s hard to decide. It’ll be a good teaching marble.

Another side note on these, but more clear quartz is pretty cool for being tricky on the yard. It just blends in like it isn’t even there. They say a brown marble is tricky, but this can even fool people when playing British Marbles. 

[Steph]

Such pretty stone.

Interesting bit of strategy insight there.  Make your marble harder to see on the dirt.  

[RolleyHoleMan]

Hiding your marble is why a lot of guys really look for the brown and butterscotch marbles, but it sure makes it hard to find your own marble. Earlier this year a park guest found a dark brown marble out on the yard ( I think my boss let them keep it ).  I was all over that yard and never noticed it. 

I've almost lost a couple marbles on the yard myself and keep finding myself walking all over the yard since I'm a marble short, so I practice with a set number of marbles to make sure I gather them all up. 

Darker marbles are also more likely to be stepped on or accidentally kicked as well. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

Been having some fun today. I got in my new grinding sticks and they really do great. Still takes a while to make a marble but I’m unfortunately starting with some big spheres. Seems I need to do better on that. 
 

Anyways the marble I finished is one sneaky marble. The entire time when making it it looked like a normal white/yellow marble. Every time I look at it or move it, it seems to change color. 
 

It’s hard to think of letting go of some of the real nice shooting marbles. Mostly because material is tight.

[RolleyHoleMan]

One thing I'm noting is I have gotten quite a few messages from people on eBay asking for multiple marbles, or specific marbles, or specific colors. 

No one ever follows up with me. Kinda annoying. Since eBay sales are slow/poor in regards to all my junk on there, I do get excited when I hear a notification. Kinda annoying. 

I do like how I haven't gotten any lowball offers though. I mean my marbles are priced high to see what will happen, but I haven't gotten the usual online nonsense with these. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[Big Billy red beard]

Nice  work, Rolley hole man.  
 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[Ric]

This is all very interesting and I just want to say that I am enjoying the education, so thanks!

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 
 

 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

 

 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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

[Steph]

Really really appreciate you sharing this history with us.   Thank you for being a part of helping to keep it alive as the great ones pass on. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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. 

[RolleyHoleMan]

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.