Preface
Each year Americans alone spend over twenty-four billion dollars on toys for their children. Most of these toys are disposable and are enjoyed for a few years, at best. They are made on high-speed automated machinery, untouched by human hands. Much of the price paid goes for packaging and advertising, rather than the toys themselves. Part of a toy's cost funds the creation of children's television; which is designed to instill desire in children for a toy manufacturer's latest products. This year's hit movie will spin off a complete line of toys that will need replacing when the next blockbuster film is released.
Remember the toys that were part of your childhood. Do you think today's children will have similar memories of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers? I hope your children will remember you when their child gallops away on the horse you made thirty years earlier. I hope they have a set of wooden blocks or a special doll from a special aunt.
So few things in life are permanent today. We need to cultivate memories to insure they are always vivid.
John Michael Linck Toymaker
copyright 2020
John,
Attached are two pictures of the heirloom rocking horse I built for my grandson’s 1st birthday. I used African Mahogany finished with hand-rubbed Danish oil and 600 grit wet sand paper. It turned out beautiful! I added an engraved brass nameplate to commemorate his birthday. My grandson just began walking and he goes straight to the rocking horse first thing nearly every day. Thanks for such a well-thought design that was easy to follow and assemble. This truly will be a durable heirloom for many generations.
Thanks again,
John S.
There is no doubt in my mind that a rebirth of the ancient art of woodworking is going on in America today...Of course most of these people are dedicated amateur woodworkers.
John Kelsey, Editor, Fine Woodworking Magazine
The 800 million Barbie dolls sold since 1959, if placed head to toe would encircle the globe three and one half times. If you placed all the toys made by toymaker John Michael Linck since 1976, end to end they would stretch at least four or five blocks.
John Michael Linck – 1996