What Makes Doblé Yo-Yos Special? - Doc Pop's Toys & Games

A view of the Doble Arial from the side, so you can see the thin axle connecting the two yo-yo halves.

Inspired by #FixedAxleFebruary and some of the questions I got during our last YoIP! Virtual Yo-Yo Club, I put together an episode about the Ariel Yo-Yo by Doblé. This is one of my favorite yo-yos in my collection, up there with the Doblé Titania, which I hope to do an episode about in the future.

In this video we also have a clip from Nate Martsolf about his Fixed Axle February Contest.

For the yo-yo history nerds, I’m attaching a few more images of the Ariel, along with website screenshots, archived links, and patent drawings. Enjoy.

A screenshot from Doble's website. It shows a photo of an Arial yo-yo and the text says

"The Ariel fixed axle yo-yo features a patented friction system, a .078 inch diameter music wire axle, and a conventional twisted cotton string (tether). This design allows for long sleep times, superb control, and extended tether life. The Ariel weighs approximately 57 grams (depending on wood type and finish), and is balanced to eliminate the cg offsets caused by wood grain density variations. The Ariel has been unofficially slept for 60 seconds, breaking the world record of 52 seconds for fixed axle yo-yos.

The unique design and performance features are covered under U.S. Patent Numbers 5,254.027, 5,389,029, and 6,066,024. The Ariel is returned to the hand from the sleep condition the same way as other yo-yos, by a slight jerk of the tether, creating a momentary slackening. There is a transition in frictional drag torque as the tether is lapped into loops spiraled between the brass lapper disks. The tether cross section changes from circular to an oval shape resulting in an increase of pressure between the tether and the lapper disks. This phenomenon allows for very low frictional drag torque during the sleep condition and the transition to high frictional drag torque during the recovery from sleep. All the surfaces interfacing with the tether are smooth, resulting in long tether life. Another innovative feature is the hub, which is a material with high mechanical stability. This material allows for a small diameter axle to be press fit into the hub, with the capability of adjusting the gap between the body halves by rotating the two body halves relative to each other while pushing or pulling. This allows an adjustment of the skimming pressure between the lapper disks and the tether. This gap adjustment allows an optimization of frictional drag torque to either maximize sleep time or increase looping ability. The interior surfaces making contact with the tether are smooth and thus will not grind up the tether as conventional yo-yos having radial ribs to provide friction. It is recommended that, now and then, the tether be removed and paraffin wax applied to the interior tip of the tether. This is best achieved by rubbing the wooden tip of a pencil on a bar of paraffin wax and then inserting the wood portion tip of the pencil into the loop at the end of the tether and rotate the pencil to transfer the wax to the tether. Your Doble yo-yo will perform smoother and the string life will be extended."

Doblé on Archive.org
Doblé on YoYoWiki
Doblé On Museum of Yo-Yo History
Doblé patents (transaxle) (fixed axle)

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