So what material is that reel grasp?

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Richard Lodge
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So what material is that reel grasp?

Post by Richard Lodge »

The July 2015 Reel News went in the mail this week and should be arriving at members' front doors, mailboxes or on the mailboat that serves your private island (yeh, right), within a week or so.

One fascinating feature in this issue is "Reel grasp material detection," by Paul Manuel. Given the limited options for using color photos in the magazine, I ran just one photo in color (on the back cover), but will display all of Paul's photos here. You'll need to read his article when the magazine arrives to fully understand these, but I've included captions which should help.




Three types of lamps used, from left: Portable long wave and short wave UV lamp (expensive, unnecessary); Long wave compact fluorescent (best performance, low cost); Black light bulb (useless).




A group of old reels under normal light. Can you tell which grasps are ivory?



The same group of old reels under Long Wave UV, revealing whiter ivory.




A variety of grasp materials on old reels




That variety of grasp materials under Long Wave UV




Initial comparison of 3 old grasps under UV





Initial hot needle test
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Paul M
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Re: So what material is that reel grasp?

Post by Paul M »

Some time ago I started a Facebook Group that is intended to focus on the subject of antique reels. In response to a recent inquiry posted in that group about grasp materials I decided to create a little visual reference guide that is sort of an appendix to the ORCA Reel News article of July 2015 referenced above. The pictures show what various bone, ivory, celluloid etc materials look to the naked eye like under normal light. ( Pics in subsequent post below...)
Last edited by Paul M on Sun Jan 17, 2016 4:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Brian F.
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Re: So what material is that reel grasp?

Post by Brian F. »

Sure, Paul, please feel free to post it here. Another good place is the Reel News so please send a copy to Richard also.
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Paul M
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Re: So what material is that reel grasp?

Post by Paul M »

Here are my old reel grasp material reference pictures. Please let me know if there are questions:

Bone/antler on old British reel:


Man made grasp material on Montague NLW reel made to look like ivory but no obvious grain - USA circa 1900


Celluloid on Montague reel with evenly space grain lines:


Horn (cow) grasp on an old Heaton reel:


Ivory grasp on a Ustonson marked reel, circa 1800 (verified by UV lamp):


Ivory Grasp on a Farlow plate wind reel (verified by UV lamp):


Ivory grasp on ancient spike winch (verified by UV lamp):
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