Rogue Reel the real story.....

[Alan Baracco]

Folks,

Only other Rogue Reels Inc. US Trademark, same era as the other one and done by Park in Berkeley?

Alan

[Z3BigDaddy]

Blaine, were others involved with the development of the spinning reel? Maybe a patent by a different person? The spinning reel, if it was introduced in 1962 as Phil states, was about the time Rogue got the Trademark.

Fun stuff.

Alan

I do not believe anyone else was a significant contributor to development other that Parks and Shaw. Shaw was a bit of a inventor in his own right and has a patent for a gun muzzle brake Pt #3,368,453 filed on 03.24.1966 and granted 02.13.1968.

I do not know that Parks did not attempt to start the company before hooking up with Shaw. The blue box pictured above was shown to Shaw and he knew nothing about it saying, "I had nothing to do with that". At that point everything seemed to originate from the Berkley area of San Francisco not Southern Oregon. But the naming of the reel would seem more than odd or coincidental considering that they would be assembled, sold and shipped just a couple of hundred yards from the Rogue River where Parks had a home and shop.

Edit added: From a local news article in Grants Pass Daily Courier dated March 24 1993, "The major selling point, though, is the durability of the reels, said Shaw, who hooked up with inventor B.H. Parks in 1959 to form Rogue Reels, Inc. (He changed the name to Rogue Sports Products Inc.) after Parks death in 1978. Parks and Shaw spent a couple of years doing nothing but assembling the dies and cast and machining parts before they cranked out their first reel" It makes a bit more sense with that little tidbit.

The Rogue "logo" was registered as name and font and shows up basically the same on all the reels.
Examples below:

We think these are the earliest production reels prior to anodizing and with a more exotic fish logo.



The most common logo. Note that this reel is actually a south paw reel with the clicker lever to the right of the drag system.



My assumption is that this reel was produced during the last days. The Logo is engraved into the finished reel plate. The plate has some pretty big imperfections and was probably rejected at first but could have been pressed into service as reel parts dwindled.

[Alan Baracco]

Z3,

The earlier Rogue US Trademark is what USPTO calls a "word" mark and is displayed on the registration certificate in the default font being used at the time. That would allow Rogue Reels to use it in any configuration they wanted. The later TM is what is called a "design" mark and (theoretically) would be displayed by RR in that configuration, kind of like you always see "Coca Cola" in their script font.

You mentioned, I believe, an incorporation number for RR in California. Do you have the papers, as that would probably tell you the officers at the time of incorp. as well as other information. Sounds like Parks was still in Berkeley in the early 1960s.

Cheers,

Alan

[colby sorrells]

Blaine,
No doubt the Secretary of State of California has the incorporation papers. They, like all states, did not digitize all old Incorporation papers, just those beyond a certain date, say 1972. BUT they have the files of all corporations within their state. You will have to seek the papers off-line. The Missouri Kid, Alan, is a whiz at making this happen in California. Those papers will be worth the effort.

Also, I see the spinning reel is engraved with someone's name. Might be worth while to run that name through a search.

ALL great stuff. This discussion is one of the reasons this website is so great and the reason why ORCA members are so great for paying for the website.

Again, a wonderful discussion about a small reel company that made an interesting product. Thanks eveyone for posting.

Keepin' It Fun!

Colby

[john elder]

I dug around and found some tidbits about the Rogue Spinning reel from one Bud Chaddock had/has. Can't remember if he still owns it, so will check. In any event, here is some paperwork that came with the reel and pics:








Note: sorry about the small pics, but I believe you can copy and blow up the pamphlets and see at least some of the verbiage

[john elder]

Also, here is one more pic of my reel, just to show the article I referred to in the background, which Phil White published on his oldreels.com site. I have not checked to see if all there was included in his RN article....perhaps so

[john elder]

Aha! Phil's oldreels.com info IS up on our ORCA list of reel research sites! I just accessed it and retrieved the article I was referring to:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160730030 ... /rogue.htm

Dunno if there's any different info here but worth a read!

[Ron Mc]

This thread remains the best info on Rogue reels ever put together.
Since I finally got mine, thought I'd show the insides, and describe the mechanism.

The stainless disc is the full diameter of the back plate, the spool uses a Medalist-type clutch - the white pin on the 4 center ramps.
The backplate teardrop pivots to disengage the clicker, which rides on the embossed 6 disc ramps.
The caliper brake is bronze, directly under the adjustment dial stack and the lever.
The lever lets you push outward and increase the drag to full-lock.
Or push inward, and decrease the drag to free-spool. This allows you to trot the line, the technique called steelheading here

[z4bigdaddy]

Nice! The early reels had more "disc ramps".

[Ron Mc]

When I posted the above photos on FFR, a forum member compared it to a trolling reel lever drag.

But in function, the caliper disc drag and lever work more like a strap wrench.
Note a tag end of the bronze caliper is visibly attached to the drag mechanism, which is essentially piston, on the outside of the reel.
The back end of the caliper strap is attached to the piston, and the front end to the lever.
The numbered wheel is a cam that lifts the entire drag mechanism and applies contact stress on the caliper and disc inside the reel.

Pushing the lever toward the rod pushes the bronze strap away from the inside of the disc, relaxing the drag all the way to freespool.
Pulling the lever away from the rod increases the drag all the way to full lock.


Still, the drag itself is pretty sophisticated for 1946 conception and 1960 production.