Compete Only With Yourself - Spinning Top Talk with Bruce Charles Designs

Here at BCD, we've loved getting to know our customers. We get many emails and reviews from those of you that love our products and have questions about future offerings. We quickly realized that many of our customers are spinning top experts and have knowledge to share about all things spinning tops! We are starting a series interviewing some of those customers, and we know you'll enjoy learning from some of our favorite top spinners.

First up is customer Tony, a 47-years joyfully married father of four and grandfather of six who loves music and all of nature. We asked Tony a few questions about spinning tops and here's what he had to say!

Four years ago, one of my thoughtful sons-in-law gave me a CNC-made top for my birthday. I was immediately hooked on the pleasure these simple hand-launched toys offer and the elegance of gyroscopic motion.

A fellow spin top enthusiast told me about the BCD 100mm fused glass spin lens, and that it was available on Amazon. I was so impressed by what your website said about the spin lens, and by its very low cost, that I immediately purchased three of them!

I have both the 1-piece and the 2-piece BCD spin tops and feel they are very good entry-level tops. But the 100mm lens has to be my favorite BCD product at this time because it has enabled me to achieve personal best spin times on several of my tops. That and the lens’ availability and low cost make it a very desirable and competitive spin surface. 

I like to spin in the family room, in part because my tops and a few spin stations are available there for friends and family to spin whenever the urge strikes them.

On a non-technical level... Do your best to compete only with your*self* and to fight the lure of besting someone else’s disclosed spin time on a given top. By doing so you’ll be far more likely to really enjoy spinning for spinning’s sake.

And on a technical level... Adjust the orientation of your hand to find the position that results in achieving consistent vertical launches. Once you’ve reached that first-order plateau, start adding torque to your launch motion. You’ll likely have to adjust your hand position as you increase the spin velocity in order to maintain that vertical stem. And lastly, try to stay in the moment with every launch, learning what works for you as you go. It’s a great hobby!!

Here's a picture of Tony's Schulte Fused taking a spin!

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