I’ve turned several tops on my lathe but never a tippy top. A tippy top should start normally, then flip over onto its spindle. During this process, it reverses its rotation.

Physics students create monstrous equations to explain this reversal that are totally beyond me.

This wood is poplar with a walnut spindle. The poplar is decorated with colored marker pens and finished with shellac friction polish.

However, my tippy top didn’t tip. I don’t know what I should do differently. Is it the center of gravity? The spherical shape? Or something else?

There will be another one – I’m not quitting.