It takes less than five minutes of visiting with Sherman Anderson to realize how important education, teaching and learning are to him. From his station at the foot lathe, right inside the entrance to the Craft Village at the Ozark Folk Center, he greets every person who comes through the door.  “Would you like to see the foot lathe run?” he queries a family with 4 children. They respond that they were here several years ago and the children learned how to spin toy wooden tops at that time. They remember the tops and focus on them.

“But I was only, like, seven, then,” said one of the girls. She looked worried that she would have to demonstrate her skill with the tops.  Moving over to his top cabinet, Sherman tells how he makes tops from 80 different kinds of wood. He can turn 5 tops on a single spindle on the foot lathe. Spinning tops are one of the oldest toys in the world. He keeps up a running patter as he gets a handful of demonstration tops from the cabinet and hands one to each child and their father.

He shows them how to thread the string with the wooden button on the end through their fingers and hold the top between their thumb and outstretched fingers. He explains they need to keep their elbow straight and hand upright.  “When you get to your front knee cap, let up on your thumb,” he demonstrates. His top flies into the ring and spins up to its tip. It spins there while Sherman checks the children’s posture and hold on the tops. Then they get to throw, with varying degrees of success. After each one retrieves their top, he shows them how to wind the string and set up for the next throw.

While he’s helping them set up, he explains how all the wood for the tops comes from his tree service business.  “I’ve learned so much more about wood than I ever dreamed I’d know,” Sherman reflected. “I’ve become a student of wood.”

As the family winds, throws and challenges each other to spin tops, Sherman loads his hands with 4 tops. He gets everyone’s attention and with a double handed swing throws all four.  Three of them stay upright and spin in a line.   “Look,” said Sherman. “It’s a syzygy. If you don’t know the word, look it up. It’s the highest point Y word in Scrabble. It’s like when the moon and sun and Earth line up and there’s an eclipse.”

Any visit with Sherman is like that, a blend of stories and information that travels a wide variety of paths. And he not only shares his learning and information and wood craft skills, he is generous with his time in his church and community. Currently he volunteers as the “Eye in the Sky”, using his boom lift to video Middle School, Junior Varsity and Varsity home games for Mountain View School.  He believes strongly in the value of the Ozark Folk Center for children.

“Kids, children, youth, once they’ve been here one time,” he said. “They can see the reason for an education. What we do here is so important. The intrinsic value of preserving and perpetuating these trades – what we do here (at the Ozark Folk Center) is unique for America at the depth we do it. We give the kids positive motivation.”

Sherman started making the toy tops in 2000. He was working on the foot lathe and floundering.

“It was an answered prayer,” he said. “Wooden mallets wouldn’t sell, rolling pins were a lot of work for what I could get for them. “ Matt Arnold gave him a book, “49 Wooden Toys” and Sherman started turning tops on the foot lathe. In September and October of that year, he sold 38 tops. “A great change,” he said.  Then a friend came to the Folk Center for Folk Dance weekend and saw what Sherman was making. This friend gave Sherman his electric lathe and motor, with the instructions that Sherman was to recruit another wood turner and give the lathe to him when he was ready to replace it. That lathe is now on its third new home.

Sherman loves to pass on his craft. One story he tells is of a young man, Colin Kenow, who spent the day visiting with him on a class field trip in 2008.  Colin went home and asked his parents if he could build something in the basement. They said ok and he built a full sized working foot lathe.  “His parents were so impressed that they bought him an electric lathe and he took to woodturning like a rocket leaves the launch pad,” said Sheman. “He (Colin) donated one of his bowls to a benefit auction and it brought $350.00.”

Thinking about the future of the Ozark Folk Center Sherman said, “One of the most important things we have to do is train our own replacements. I intend to stay at this until I sell 10,000 tops. That’s another five years. And then?”

Sherman and many of the other crafters at the Ozark Folk Center offer One-on-One classes and training in their craft year-around. Classes are $75 per day and are arranged to fit your schedule and your learning style. For more information on One-on-One classes call Jeanette at 870-269-3851.