Interesting "brass" reel

[john elder]

I picked this up from the neighbor of a fellow ORCAn the other day...he wasn't interested and I thought it looked like a fun challenge, so I sprang for it;





The reel was unique in my experience for this type of reel in being a 4:1 multiplier, rather than the typical 2-3:1. I thought it was just another unknown brass reel, but I got a few surprises when I opened it up; first of all, it wasn't brass. The unexposed surfaces on the inside were typical nickel silver..only exposed surfaces had taken on the deep yellow brass color. the reel was well-made and solid, with barrel nuts used to hold the pillars tight against the face plate and the back plate sides were screwed in.



the clicker was a bit unique in that the on-off button acted on the pawl via a short arm, rather than being directly attached to the pawl.


It seems likely that these are signatures that I hope others have seen. I was thinking it might be an early Hendryx, just based on the general similarity in the handle and drag switch to a little RP Hendryx I have. However, after looking a bit more, it looked a bit less like the Hendryx.

Good news is that the reel cleaned up nicely and other than need to spend some time straightening the tweeked foot, it had no damage. interestingly, cleaning also revealed a novelty in that the reel has an apparent serial number ("35") stamped into the top of the foot. It's the same number that appears scratched into the internal parts, a number which we have generally accepted as production lot numbers for a given time frame (day, week, month) ...there's always something new in this hobby!

[Mike N]

Very informative, John.

I love when you save an old classic. The reel reminds me of those often sold by Abbey & Imbrie but it’s missing the retailer’s logo. I’ll check a few of their catalogs. Thanks for posting.

Mike N

[Steve]

Click in JVH reel:

[john elder]

In way of update, i dialogued further with Steve and he came up with several catalog pics of interest, including this one from H. kiffe, which is almost certainly my reel: 4- multiplier and offered in 100 yd size with all the earmarks of my reel that i can see in the illustration:



It does say that the reel was nickel plated, so if all plating had been removed from the exterior in the past, that would explain what i see as far as reel being brass but showing nickel on the innards. I must admit in defense that the nickel on inside does not look like plating and surprised that the uncleaned reel showed no sign of nickel plate. (EDIT! I am defenseless! Just reviewed the before pics and i now see signs of the
plating on the face plate ). Oh well, it is indeed a nice piece of history. Steve still votes for JVH and i am not one to argue with that.

[Ray Hencken]

I agree with Steve, the reel is a product of JVH.