Making a Toy Top (Version 1)

Tops are a seriously old toy. In Iraq, some tops from 3,500 BC have even been found. (Making them almost as old as my 7th grade teacher was.) I have always thought tops were neat because of the tremendous speed they operate at from a simple pull or twist. As a kid I had a couple of commercial top...

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Gee-Haw Whammy Stick/Whimmydiddle

I was in 5th grade when I was first introduced to this toy. We had a group of people come in one day and show us some Appalachian crafts. One of the toys was a stick with notches cut along its length. It had a small propeller at the tip which spun when the stick was rubbed along the notches by...

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Wood Woodpecker

The Wood Woodpecker. This was one of those "proof-of-concept" projects that just ended up working well enough that he became an actual toy. He is really simple to make and doesn't take much time to complete. A good friend and colleague of mine, ummm let's just call her "Martha" (because that is her...

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