Another Who Dunnit ...

[reelsmith.]

This reel is 2-1/8" in diameter.

Note the compensating screw on the back plate and the flat spool end.

The front and back plates are domed.

Have you see a reel like this before?

Dean.

[Mike N]

Dean, that is such an elegant reel. My thought is that it’s a top of the catalog Hendryx. It’s the handle that best describes its maker.

Mike N.

[RonG]

Beautiful reel Dean. Can you post a photo of the bottom of the reel's foot?

[Steve]

Edwin Judge

[reelsmith.]

Mike, Thanks. It is indeed elegant ...and unlike any fly reel I've seen.

Ron, Thanks. While the foot looks like it is one-piece, it is actually two pieces put together very neatly with tight tolerances. Note the three pins in the second picture that hold the cross plate to the foot. Also note the pins cannot be seen on the underside of the foot, I like this guy's style !

Steve, I note your book has no pictures of possible Edwin Judge reels. Is my reel similar to others you suspect of being by Judge ? Have any picture.

Dean.

[RonG]

Interesting

[Steve]

The Judge thing was a semi-joke. Twenty years-worth of reelmaking and no IDed reels. I have an article coming up about a BH with a similar, two-piece foot that was soldered, not riveted. Dean, except for the straight crank, is there any reason to think the reel isn't British?

[reelsmith.]

Dean, except for the straight crank, is there any reason to think the reel isn't British?

Yes, because it's not.

Nickle silver UK reels are crazy rare and the few I've seen were either heavily embellished or presentation engraved. Fine by me if it is English, but I just don't think so. It's just not a material they worked with much.

The click, with the blued screw, looks very US to me. The pinned foot with a single screw in the center was used by Fowle. The compensating bearing screw is a distinctly US feature. It's just not a pattern I've seen on a known British reel ...but have seen more times than I could count on US reels from the 1860s - 1890s.

Having dismantled hundreds of British reels, this one feels very American. Either way, having been at this as long as I have without ever seeing one leads me to think its one of few ...wherever it came from.

Edwin Judge ...you had me all excited you knew something !

By the way, the guy I got it from was convinced it was a Hewitt. He was American ...right ?

Dean.

[Steve]

Yes, because it's not

Pretty unassailable logic, by gum. Luckily, there's no chance someone in Birmingham, which had a thriving nickel silver trade, could have tried this new-fangled (but non-wooden) stuff for a reel. Just as it's unlikely anyone here might have tried aluminum or Monel or celluloid or Bakelite or ebonite for a reel when a newish material became known.

As far as adjustable bearings go, George Snyder put them into at least one reel. Not rocket science! It's true that they became common here, but not really early. You wanna guess at a date for your reel?

[reelsmith.]

January 7, 1901. Coincidentally, the same day Alferd Packer was released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism.

I have no idea if the two events are related.

Dean.

[Steve]

William Rodgers

And by the way, Packer used German silver cutlery.

[reelsmith.]

To bring the discussion back to the serious side, dating it is like throwing darts as the basic pattern of the reel was produced for a long time.

A reel historian friend of ours said "The reel in question looks American to me and my guess is early 20th century. I don’t know the maker, but again my guess is a commercial machinist rather than a home mechanic.

My guess is earlier ...1880 - 1900. Just a hunch. No hard evidence of any kind. Its mostly the click spring/pawl arrangement and that lone blued screw that make me think its early.

The reel has a lot going on ...the domed plates, compensating screw, countersunk handle screw, rope rims (for lack of a better term), large arbor and the flat spool end. Its very distinctive. If another example of this makers work shows up it should be easy to identify as being from the hands of the same guy.

Dean.

[kyreels]

I am not a fly reel guy, and the domed plate and handle that is curved around the dome is new to my experience. Is that something seen in other notable reels?

[reelsmith.]

Matt, its a first for me. Its not something I've seen before ...or if I have, I've forgotten.

As an update, I sent the pictures to a couple collectors in the UK and they highly doubt it is English.

An astute American collector and reel maker tells me that the threads used on English and American screws of the era (presumably pre or shortly post 20th century) were of a different pitch and are not interchangeable. So I tested a few screws from known American reels on my unknown reel and the ones the proper size fit perfectly, nice and tight, no slop and threaded smoothly.

Dean.

[Paul M]

I am not a fly reel guy, and the domed plate and handle that is curved around the dome is new to my experience. Is that something seen in other notable reels?

What about Chubb?

[reelsmith.]

Very Cool !

Thanks Paul ...I had not seen that before. Would love to see the reel !

Dean.

[Paul M]

It was previously discussed here. Examples are different but it’s not hard to imagine a reel as shown in the patent drawing with short pillars to create one like yours.

[john elder]

That lower pic in Paul’s Eaton Catalogue looks like your reel To me, Dean. As to the “single” screw in the foot, you can well imagine what would happen if that was really all that held the foot in place. It no doubt has two support pins in addition to the screw (like yours) that keep the foot from pivoting, even if not evident in the pic. Kind of a unique design that i don’t recall seeing before.

J

[reelsmith.]

I see more differences than similarities. The one in the catalog (if I'm looking at the right picture) has pillars that screw into the head plate, has a traditional arbor, flat plates and a wood knob on the end of a spool shaft that sticks out quite far.

Am I looking at the wrong picture ?

Dean.

[john elder]

Definitely Judge

You are right, Dean.... was focussed on the foot issue. Either way, there’s probably too much license allowed in drawings to help much.