Identifying Wood Samples Through the USDA

Ok - This site is supposed to be just about making toys so please excuse the non-directly toy related post that follows. For anyone not interested in my ramblings but needs to have some wood identified let me cut to the chase: If you are a US citizen you can submit up to five samples per calendar...

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Making a Shut the Box Game with a Cigar Box

In short - "Shut the Box" is a very old counting game that is part strategy part luck. Honestly though, mostly luck so it is a great game for kids to play against an adult. Super easy and fast to play, it can even be played solo. It does help kids with quick addition skills and the game only takes...

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Making a Toy Shark

Okay, right off the bat -this is not my design. It comes from the amazing mind of David Wakefield and is in his book "Toymaking Basics" That book is a great one stop shop for getting started making toys and has a few plans (including this shark) at the end. I highly recommend it. This toy has an...

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Making a Toy Carousel/Merry-Go-Round

This a fun, very straight forward project that can be adapted all sorts of different ways depending on who you are building this for. Any sort of animals, characters or vehicles could be used. So the requisite history part... FYI - Carousels in Europe go clockwise. Carousels in the US go counter...

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