# Remember these toys of yesteryear



## TellicoTurning (Feb 8, 2019)

These were the second preferred toys when I was in grammar school... first being marbles...  thought these might be a fun thing to offer in my booth this summer...
First is oak, second is a scrap from a glue up I did for a pepper mill, Maple and spectraply Crossbones and Red Ryder, third is spalted sycamore and the last is cherry. 

Haven't tested them yet, thought I had a ball of cord in the shop, but didn't find it, so will need to get the string to throw them next time I'm in town.
They are all finished with Hut polish and topped with carnuba wax.


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## magpens (Feb 8, 2019)

Hey, Chuck ... you could be dating yourself !! :biggrin: . But that's OK cuz your b.d. is given in your profile.

  I am a couple of years younger and I never in my lifetime saw one of those toys (tops ?) actually in use. . But maybe I saw other things that you didn't !

You should add a video showing how you start one of those things spinning !

Nice work, BTW !!!


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## chartle (Feb 8, 2019)

I had Wizzers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KRbCfXi1Nw


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## Woodchipper (Feb 8, 2019)

Man,that is ancient history. All we had were oatmeal boxes and old coffee percolators. Anyone remember Mom putting the coffee pot on the stove in the morning?
FWIW, you know you are getting old when you see things that were new when you were a kid and now they are in an antique store. My wife's observation.


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## showcaser (Feb 8, 2019)

nope


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## Herb G (Feb 8, 2019)

chartle said:


> I had Wizzers.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KRbCfXi1Nw


Me too. I still have some in the original packaging too.


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## Charlie_W (Feb 8, 2019)

Yup.....marbles with a couple steamrollers(shooters) and tops! I had a Duncan top with the holes in the side which caused to to whistle


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## dogcatcher (Feb 8, 2019)

I remember both the tops and the marbles.


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## magpens (Feb 8, 2019)

What I remember best is yo-yo's and marbles ... we didn't have tops but knew about them.


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## TellicoTurning (Feb 8, 2019)

magpens said:


> Hey, Chuck ... you could be dating yourself !! :biggrin: . But that's OK cuz your b.d. is given in your profile.
> 
> I am a couple of years younger and I never in my lifetime saw one of those toys (tops ?) actually in use. . But maybe I saw other things that you didn't !
> 
> ...




It's been a few years since I made one spin, but think I still remember how...just have to make a trip into town and get a ball of cord... 

I also have a couple of tops that my dad had when he was a boy... that would make them about 94 years old.... don't know about the video.. not sure I know enough about this new fanged technology to make one.


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## More4dan (Feb 8, 2019)

I played with them in the 70s in Jr High School. We would replace the tips with sharpened nails to battle each other. Splitting your opponent’s top was an instant win. They would be classified as deadly weapons today and get you picked up by the police. 

It would be a crying shame if one of your beautiful tops were ever so mistreated. 

I may have to turn me one and see if I can still throw and spin it. 

Danny


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## Bean_Counter (Feb 8, 2019)

My kids have "battle tops" called bey blades. They are pretty cool and nothing like you old coggers had :biggrin:


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## BKelley (Feb 8, 2019)

Tops & marbles were great, but my Dad made sure I always had a good pocket knife.
He was a firm believer in I*XL and that’s what he always got for me.  Good memories.

Ben


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## randywa (Feb 9, 2019)

When I made some a few years ago, this website was pretty helpful.

https://www.scienceofspin.com/spin-top-tips---videos.html


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## magpens (Feb 9, 2019)

Thanks for posting that link, Randy !!


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## Talltim (Feb 9, 2019)

I had marbles and tops.  

The other day I sat waiting for a train to go by and when the last car finally past with a flashing red light and no red caboose. I thought how sad. 

But there are a lot of things I wouldn’t want to go back to.  


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## robutacion (Feb 9, 2019)

magpens said:


> Hey, Chuck ... you could be dating yourself !! :biggrin: . But that's OK cuz your b.d. is given in your profile.
> 
> I am a couple of years younger and I never in my lifetime saw one of those toys (tops ?) actually in use. . But maybe I saw other things that you didn't !
> 
> ...



Well, not exactly the way they are normally spun but, close enough...!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db4lH3BZE0Q

Cheers
George


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## TellicoTurning (Feb 9, 2019)

BKelley said:


> Tops & marbles were great, but my Dad made sure I always had a good pocket knife.
> He was a firm believer in I*XL and that’s what he always got for me.  Good memories.
> 
> Ben




My pocket knife was always a K-bar... first one I got was when I was about 7 years old... it was a cast-off of my grandfathers and had one blade broken.. the other he had used to cut his chew tobacco... I put the blade in my mouth once and got a taste of it... when I lost it, Dad gave me his and he got a new one.  I still carry a small pen knife, but have to be careful when I travel, i've lost at least two to TSA at the airport.


Kids get arrested today if they have a pocket knife at school.


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## TellicoTurning (Feb 9, 2019)

robutacion said:


> magpens said:
> 
> 
> > Hey, Chuck ... you could be dating yourself !! :biggrin: . But that's OK cuz your b.d. is given in your profile.
> ...




Hey George,
I saw that on You-tube last night... pretty cool, but a lot more work than this old boy wants to put in to spinning a top. 



Chuck


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## robutacion (Feb 9, 2019)

More4dan said:


> I played with them in the 70s in Jr High School. We would replace the tips with sharpened nails to battle each other. Splitting your opponent’s top was an instant win. They would be classified as deadly weapons today and get you picked up by the police.
> 
> It would be a crying shame if one of your beautiful tops were ever so mistreated.
> 
> ...



I was going to mention exactly the same thing I remembered as a young boy, we would spend hours playing and we got very accurate, the long sharp nails installed on the tops has created a few holes on my pockets and some went as far as spike my leg, after spun a few times they get dull but when freshly installed, they were deadly.  I also agree with you on how the Police would react if kids were found at the schools with these "modified" tops...!

Cheers
George


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## robutacion (Feb 9, 2019)

TellicoTurning said:


> These were the second preferred toys when I was in grammar school... first being marbles...  thought these might be a fun thing to offer in my booth this summer...
> First is oak, second is a scrap from a glue up I did for a pepper mill, Maple and spectraply Crossbones and Red Ryder, third is spalted sycamore and the last is cherry.
> 
> Haven't tested them yet, thought I had a ball of cord in the shop, but didn't find it, so will need to get the string to throw them next time I'm in town.
> They are all finished with Hut polish and topped with carnuba wax.



Nicely made, it certainly brings memories back but, I've seen mentioned these tops and marbles but no one mentioned the coins or buttons throwing against a wall, most of the time school cement rendered walls, after a while, one could tell where these games have been played, particularly when coins were used, the damage was visible but we saw it as an extra difficulty/challenge as throwing the coin onto the wall holes the landing/direction, distance was not as controlled, no one seemed to care about the wall damages/scars, I don't think you would get away with it today.

Cheers
George


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## Kenny Durrant (Feb 9, 2019)

Very Nice! I remember trying to play with them. I never seemed to master the art of throwing the things. I also had the Wizzer Tops but that got boring pretty fast. It was also mentioned here about dating yourself. I'll tell you the day it sank in that I'm old! We went to Ok City to visit our son and went to a Science Museum just to do something different and kill some time. It was basically geared for kids.  When we first walked in they had some huge display cases of stuff that I guess they considered old relics. It didn't;t take long for me to see that I not only knew what everything was I played or use over half of the items. There were the old manual typewriters, Rotary Phones,  Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys to name a few. Now I blaming the fact that things change much faster because of technology now so it's necessarily the fact that I'm THAT OLD!


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## Curly (Feb 9, 2019)

Mike Hosaluk was a demonstrator at our Turning Symposium last summer and in one of his demonstrations he turned a similar top. Then he wound the string on it and tossed it. He turned a second one before the first stopped spinning. Not as pretty as yours Chuck but still impressive.

Among most of the toys mentioned above including a 6" sheath knife I had when I was 6, I loved playing with the cap rockets. You put a paper cap from a roll (same kind as cap guns) in it and then threw it as high or as far as you could. When it hit the pavement you got a nice satisfying bang and a puff of smoke. A most delightful toy!!


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## MRDucks2 (Feb 9, 2019)

Pocket knife was always a Case, typically and Old Timer. Marbles with my friends, but Dad and one of his friends went to a lot of auctions when the three of us boys would get up games if pitching quarters against a wall with the other kids. 

Lincoln logs, tinker toy toys and American Building Blocks, the predecessor to LEGOs.  

Playing, I believe it was called “jack” with a 2 blade pocket knife by flipping it in the air and gaining points if it landed on the blades. 

How about skate boards with metal wheels, swinging from loft to loft on a rope in the barn or even deciding to sleep the night in the barn in the fall because it was comfortable and warm among the the hay bales. 


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## Edgar (Feb 9, 2019)

Great job on those, Chuck. I've been wanting to turn some tops myself. What did you use for the points?

I don't have any left that I used to play with, but I did find one in my grandfather's old trunk that probably belonged to one of my uncles - probably from 1930-1935 or so.

Marbles, tops & knives were our favorite recess games. We played a mumblety-peg game at recess. You flipped the knife off a body part - arm, elbow, back of the hand, etc & whichever player could make it stick in the ground closest to a target would win that round and get to name the next trick.

Our favorite top game was to draw a circle and get your top spinning inside that circle, then throw another top and try to knock another player's top out of the circle. Sometimes kids played "keepers" but most couldn't afford to buy another one, so we didn't engage in that.

Marbles were a different story - they were pretty cheap and we almost always played keepers, again trying to knock marbles out of a circle.


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## dogcatcher (Feb 9, 2019)

Curly said:


> Mike Hosaluk was a demonstrator at our Turning Symposium last summer and in one of his demonstrations he turned a similar top. Then he wound the string on it and tossed it. He turned a second one before the first stopped spinning. Not as pretty as yours Chuck but still impressive.
> 
> Among most of the toys mentioned above including a 6" sheath knife I had when I was 6, I loved playing with the cap rockets. You put a paper cap from a roll (same kind as cap guns) in it and then threw it as high or as far as you could. When it hit the pavement you got a nice satisfying bang and a puff of smoke. A most delightful toy!!



Years ago I made some of those cap rockets, I used 2 nails to pop the paper caps. Cut most of the shank off of the nails, 1 went on the inside with the cap, the other on the point of the "rocket".   It also made a pretty good lawn dart, but that nail shank could hurt.


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## TellicoTurning (Feb 9, 2019)

Edgar said:


> Great job on those, Chuck. I've been wanting to turn some tops myself. What did you use for the points?
> 
> I don't have any left that I used to play with, but I did find one in my grandfather's old trunk that probably belonged to one of my uncles - probably from 1930-1935 or so.
> 
> ...




Edgar,
I used some large cup hooks for the points, but thinking they may be a little light... think I may find some framing nails with have two heads and cut them to fit, the grind the top head to a point. .. will give them more weight at the bottom.


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## dogcatcher (Feb 9, 2019)

Use a double headed nail, cut off the top head, and part of the nail shank.   

First cut off the top head and to length.  Drill hole on blank for a tight fit.  Jam nail in hole, this will be your mandrel while turning.  I use a drill chuck in the headstock.  Turn to shape and pull out the nail.  Now mount the nail from the long end in your drill chuck.  Then grind a point on the short end of the nail and re insert the long end with epoxy.


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## Sataro (Feb 10, 2019)

Chuck, great job on the tops. I remember playing with these in elementary school. We always had contest trying to knock chunks out of each others tops. Favorite pocket knife was always a Case pocket knife. High School years, our favorite knife game was “chicken”. Face each other about 4-6’ apart with feet spread wide apart. Must throw & stick the knife between the other fellows feet. Each time the knife stuck, you had to move one of your feet close to the knife. Play till you lost your nerve...


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## More4dan (Feb 10, 2019)

Either I was poorer or I had a reputation for loosing things as a kid. First knife was a Barlow while I envied those Case knives. 
Much of my candy money came from pitching coins against the wall. Whoever was closest picked all the coins and pocketed them. Started with nickels and dimes and hustled our way up to quarters. 

Is there somewhere I could find any drawings or plans for those throwing tops?  The profiles were very similar back in the day and I’m sure there was a good reason. 

Danny


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## TellicoTurning (Feb 10, 2019)

More4dan said:


> Either I was poorer or I had a reputation for loosing things as a kid. First knife was a Barlow while I envied those Case knives.
> Much of my candy money came from pitching coins against the wall. Whoever was closest picked all the coins and pocketed them. Started with nickels and dimes and hustled our way up to quarters.
> 
> Is there somewhere I could find any drawings or plans for those throwing tops?  The profiles were very similar back in the day and I’m sure there was a good reason.
> ...




Dany,
I just went off the ones I have from my childhood and from my Dad's ... I watched a couple of videos on turning them before starting, then just went for it... I'm still working on re-learning how to make them spin... I can spin one of my old ones, but the new ones I think are too light in the tip... gonna fix that this next week.


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## MDWine (Feb 11, 2019)

Those are excellent!
You must do a video when  you get them spinning!!

Dontcha just love the ideas and discussions on IAP?


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