Books:

Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
Money at Home

Small Business
of Your Own

You Can Own
a Business

Hall, now past retirement age, always liked working with wood. Although he spent forty-six years in the clothing business, he headed for his basement workshop almost every night. Back in 1928 he took a course in woodworking, making a mahogany table, bookshelves and corner cabinet for his mother. Later he made many of the tables and magazine racks in his own home and when his only child married she was able to furnish her home almost completely with her father's exquisitely made furniture. Then came the grandchildren, and the toy-making hobby began. At first Hall gave away the toys he made. Soon orders began coming in for duplicates, and he found himself in business.

Some of Hall's patterns are bought from craft plan firms. Often, however, he simply looks at a picture or listens to a description of the toy wanted and proceeds to design it, himself.

"First, I draw off squares on a big piece of cardboard," he says. "Then, I draw a full-size pattern for each piece of the toy. I cut out the cardboard pattern, lay it on the wood and draw around it. I then cut out each piece with a circular saw or band saw. After running them through the sander to cut down all sharp edges, I put them together with screws, using angle irons at points of strain. For the toys which are to be painted, I first apply a mixture of shellac and alcohol, mixed half and half. Then comes a filler, and, last of all, a coat of outside enamel. For safety's sake, I never use a nail in any toy."

Hall's daughter, Mrs. C.A. Carrington, a former art student, paints smiling faces on the horses, ducks and costumers. To other toys, Hall adds a few fancy touches, such as the decals on the step stools and the wooden cut-outs of crescents and stars on the big toy chests.

BECAUSE SOME of the toys have proved to be such fast sellers, Hall cuts out dozens of identical pieces at a time and stacks them in his garage until needed. At present he has more than 300 toys cut out to be assembled at leisure. He saves every cardboard pattern, so he can always fill orders for duplicates.

Although most of Hall's sales have been made to parents who happened to see his toys in the homes of their acquaintances, he is now being "discovered" by the teachers of nursery schools. He recently sold $204 worth of toys and outdoor play equipment to one school. The teachers are delighted to find that through him they can obtain the highly recommended equipment for preschool children which they have not been able to buy from local stores. For example, Hall has just filled an order for seventy-five large hollow building blocks at $2 each. The same nursery school wanted ironing boards which could not easily be tipped over. Hall designed a non-folding, sturdy one with a firm, flat base, and the teacher bought four, paying $4 for each.

He gives the following instructions for making this unusual ironing board "Use ½-inch plywood for the base and for the ironing board. Make the base board 28 by 9 inches, rounding all four corners. Make the board to iron on 28 by 8½ inches. Starting 14 inches from the back end of this board, taper it gradually until it measures 5½ inches at the front end. The two upright pieces measure 21 by 6½ inches. Mortise seven inches from the top, and insert a shelf 6 by 6 inches to set the iron on when not in use."

The teacher ordered, also, six doll beds at $4 each. She liked them because they are strong enough for a child to curl up on while playing. To make these, Hall cuts from thick plywood a solid panel 36 inches long and 18 inches wide. He attaches to this a headboard 12 inches high and a footboard 9 inches high. For the mattress he cuts out a rectangle of foam rubber to fit the panel.

PERHAPS HALL'S most popular item is a doll cradle, for, mothers know that they can be used later as attractive magazine racks. Hall attaches to them a Swiss mechanical movement which rocks the bed slowly and puts dolly to sleep to the tune of "Rock-a-bye-baby." A friend of his who runs a novelty shop, saw the cradles, ordered 100, and sold them all.

Sometimes, for the sake of variety, Hall changes a design. For example, he has sold dozens of costumers—sort of hat rack with a face and with "arms" (dowels) on which children hang their clothes. Last year they wore round smiling boy and girl faces, topped with yarn hair trimmed like a boy's or braided into pigtails. This year the costumers wear clown faces, topped by a painted clown hat. The dimensions are unchanged: A base 17 by 17 inches, mortised in the center for a duplicate cross base, a pedestal 40 inches high with two ³/8-inch dowel rods inserted.

The Hall-made toys please children of all ages. Little girls go for the vanities with stools, the doll beds with a side that raises and lowers, the 24 by 12-inch tester beds with posts 25 inches tall, the doll play pens, doll houses, chests of drawers, wardrobes, cupboards and doll furniture of every description.

Boys like the garages, carts, trucks, the lumber cart complete with logs and chain, and the wheelbarrows with metal handles and framework, which sell for $4 and are almost indestructible.

For tots there are hobbyhorses, rocking horses, broomstick horses with a horse's head on one end and a wheel on the other, rocking ducks which will accommodate two riders, toddler's wagons, ABC carts with blocks that turn when the wheels turn, a circus wagon with a cage big enough to hold a preschooler, wooden animals, and step stools which help short legs grow long enough to reach the wash basin (or cookie jar).

All children like the bedside lamps shaped like miniature pumps with handles.

Although Christmas is, understandably, the rush season, summer brings a call for outdoor toys. Then the workshop is filled with sand boxes, three-rope swings for one or two children, toboggan rollers eighteen feet long, sliding boards, back yard play pens, lawn furniture and birdhouses.

A fast-selling summer item is the combination seesaw-merry-go-round which is two feet high and has a strong board 7 feet long and 6 inches wide. This sells for $12.50.

WHEN HALL computes his prices, much depends upon the type of wood which is used. Although a pine cradle will sell for $3.50, the same cradle in solid cherry brings $15. In like fashion, the tester bed brings $15 if fashioned of oak and $20 if made of walnut.

"Lumber is quite expensive," says Hall. "I buy from a local lumber company, paying thirty-five cents a square foot for pine, fifty cents for oak, $1 for walnut and $1.50 for mahogany. In order to arrive at my selling price, I keep itemized accounts of the cost of wood and hardware on each article and of the time required to make it, figuring my labor at $1.75, an hour." He adds, with a twinkle in his eye, "I am very careful with my accounts as I want to make sure that Uncle Sam gets his part."

Hall receives social security payments and some rental income. He is quite sure that a conscientious worker could make toy making into a profitable, full-time job. "I started out making toys just for fun," he says. "Now I have so many orders that I work for eight hours a day three days a week. At first I worked only in the basement. Now my car has been chased out of the garage, and I have a second insulated and heated workshop out there."

During the years, Hall has acquired a power sander, drill, jig saw, band saw, circular saw, jointer and a shaper. Like all good workmen, he keeps his tools in excellent shape and has "a place for everything, and everything in its place."

Never too busy to learn, Hall subscribes to a number of mechanical and hobby magazines and reads literature put out by tool companies.

NOT WISHING to tax his strength with too much business, Hall has not advertised in any newspaper or periodical, nor has he listed his business in the telephone directory. His hobby was written up twice by a reporter and published on "The Golden Years" page of a Richmond newspaper. This publicity resulted in floods of orders, some from distant states. A mother wrote from Hawaii that a Hall-made toddler's wagon is now the delight of her 15-month-old son.

Hall has had two cards printed, and customers are always happy to distribute them to their friends. Both carry across the top the words Doll Beds, Cradles, Rocking Horses, Pull Toys. In addition to his name, address and telephone number, one card has the catchy lines:

For Toys—See Hall—That's All
Name It and I'll Make It

The other, which he distributes during the months before Christmas, urges:

If you want your kids to have Xmas joys,
Be sure to give them HALL-MADE toys.
At Xmas time a HALL-MADE toy
Is a wonderful gift for girl or boy.

Does he enjoy his work? "I love every minute of it," Hall declares. "I never get tired of making toys. Often in the mornings I am so eager to start that I get up at six o'clock and begin work at seven."

His active participation in church work and his reputation as a skilled toy maker have made for him a host of friends. They agree that Henley Hall and his toys seem to have achieved the same worthy goal—they both make people happy.

Flush with the bottom edge of two of the 24" long pieces, a ½" square soft wood rail was screwed on. The head and footboards were laid out flat to mark the corner posts for dowel holes. Two dowels were allowed for each board. The first one was ½" from the top of the square, the bottom was 3¼" from the other end. This left 1¼" between the boards at the foot, and the third board at the top was spaced between the other two boards. For the side boards, the dowel holes were slightly staggered so they would not interfere with the holes for the end boards. The side rails were spaced to match the height of the cross pieces in the foot. Before finally gluing and assembling, the notches to insert the rockers were cut ½" wide and ¾" deep in the bottoms of the corner posts. Be sure you have these in the direction the rockers will run.

While the glue was setting, the rocker was fashioned and cut. You may enlarge this as shown in the drawing. The finished rocker was 20" long, 1½" wide at the narrowest part, and 2½" where the posts are attached. Note the reverse curve at the end of the rockers to prevent tipping over. The rockers were first cut as one piece from a 1¼" white pine piece. The edges were sanded down smooth, so both rockers would be identical when the two were ripped out of this piece. They were ½" wide to fit snugly into the slots previously cut in the corner posts. These rockers were drilled and fastened on with ¼" dowels.

The finish was a clear stain and when dry it was rubbed with wax. This brought out the natural beauty of the walnut and the pine of the rockers made a nice contrast. It really looked like a family heirloom or an antique. Especially so, since in cutting out the boards an occasional worm hole was overlooked. Slats for the bottom were made from thin fruit box wood.