SPINNING TOPS

For many years I have been fascinated by spinning tops.  I could have used the word "hypnotized" just as well.  I love setting them in motion, watching them jump and dance, then just sit sedately, as if they were motionless, and finally wobble their way, reluctantly top the ground.

I love setting as many as I can in motion as quickly after each other as possible.  Then they are like a rather special "corps de ballet", not as graceful except when they are all "sleeping" in motion.  Even the dieing swan is more graceful than a top losing its momentum.

Then  there is competing one top against the other.  I just use my fingers to set them off and time them with my stop watch.  It is not really fair I suppose as I surely do not think that each has exactly the same power of spin, even though I try very hard to treat them all the same.  Some of my tops spin for three or four minutes.  Others claim much longer spins, but it does not matter.  Who is competing?  Not me.

I am not an accomplished "throw" spinner, with the string wound around a pear shaped "peg top" and hurled to the ground.. I read the history of these tops with awe at the tricks they got up to.  Yes,  I seem to be able to whip a top reasonably, but I still like my finger spinners the best.

But most of all I like, at the end of the day,  to pick up a bit of wood left over from a turning project and turn a top.  It is a simple, quick and very satisfying project.  I get immediate results as I take it off the lathe a spin it, often on the band saw platen.  I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that I am a miniature turner (well 5'9" is not very miniature is it?)  I should have said that I turn miniatures; and tops are no exception.  I especially use all my tiny little bits of bone  in this manner.  I seem to have the knack of getting the tippe top to work at about a 5 mm diameter.  That makes me feel good, because they are difficult to turn.

This leads me to my special interest in ethnic tops, particularly of antiquity.  I have done some research on the Torres Straits Island tops and some incomplete work on the New Zealand tops.  You can read about both of these on the following pages.  But the pride and joy of my interest is the world of Japanese tops.  We know so very little about them in the western world and I am determined to record as many of them as I can find, beg, borrow or s.....(well... not really!)

Special thanks to John Sandstrom.  I can't recall how we met on the web, but at any rate, he was the one who has rekindled my interest in tops, who hosts most of my tops pages, and gives me great encouragement.  Please explore his pages too. He also has good links to follow.  Don Olney, the Toycrafter is another person whose help and advice I appreciate very much.  But there is quite a lot of top people out there and they are all great people and very willing to chat and share their knowledge..  Thanks to you all.