Updated Photos: Need help with reel ID

[leland99]

***Update: Some clearer photos. This reel belongs to Gary Robinson of NFLCC. Previous owners grandfather was from NY.***

Looking for help with an ID on this reel. Some similarities to Hendryx, although much more knurling including the pillars and the foot appears screwed onto the bottom pillars. Thanks in advance.

[john elder]

Whoever it is must have gotten a new Knurler for Christmas!

Seems likely to me that all that knurling wasn't there when the reel left the factory...just MO.
j

[reelsmith.]

I can't ID it, but it looks fairly high-grade and appears to be nickel silver ???

Dean.

[Eric J]

Groovy!

[Robin Sayler]

Definitely an interesting looking reel.

[leland99]

In follow up to my posts for this reel one year ago, I am now the owner of this reel! Here are some photos from the interior of the reel hoping it helps with a positive ID. I went through Steve Vernon's book to see if I could find info for the spring clicker or the drag but did not spot anything. The brass yoke is attached to the inner ring, and the small circle is the backside of a brass knob about the size of a BB that presses against the rim of the spool. The drag button has a concave cylinder that fits inside the arms of the yoke. The reel handle has been modified (replaced knob and post, possible replaced counterbalance weight based on all the solder on front and back). The reel spins like a top.

[Teal]

Everything about this seems to be hand made to me. Wonderful reel, great eye appeal.

How does it run?

-- Dr. Todd

[40fordflathead]

Wow, very nice looking reel.
Bruce

[kyreels]

I would add another vote to the hand-made ballot. The knurling on almost everything makes me wonder if it was done to illustrate skill (perhaps either as an apprentice or perhaps as a master showing what could be done). Mechanically, it seems simpler to me such that one might imagine that it may have been done by a highly skilled machinist (not in the reel business perhaps). But it also just as well might have been a prototype. It is unique and a wonderful example of the time.

[Steve]

Bryce,
There are a lot of possible origins of that unusual reel. Sure, it looks "hand-made" or at least "home-made." Maybe it's the product of a maker like J.G. Schreuder, who made at least three high-quality reels, two of them Kentucky-style. Maybe it was made by someone who is known to have made reels, but whose reels haven't been identified yet, at least by the collecting public. Examples could include folks like Benjamin Alt, Matthias Horst, and others.
It's possible that the brake was added and represents an adaptation of some patented brake. The sliding button at 12:00 o'clock moves that grooved cylinder, which then moves the brake spring toward or away from the spool. The pin on the spring acts as the brake.
There are enough solderings to suggest that the main gear bridge and the brake spring were non-factory. The whole brake arrangement is like this one in a reel shown on ebay. Maybe the reel owner was trying to repair a damaged brake. Maybe he lost the brake spring.

I'm not sure anything on the reel would have been patentable. Sometimes, variations of patent designs may be found in the products of small shops, like the Hastings clutches. Sometimes, examples of patented features are seen in reels very different from those shown in patent drawings, like the Wilson drag, Berner drag, Giroud click/drag, and others.
All that babbling doesn't tell us who made the original reel. One feature that may eventually provide a clue is the unusual intersection of the spool arbor with the spool flange.

[leland99]

Thanks for the kind remarks and commentary. To Dr. Todd's question "How does it run?", it runs extremely smooth and easy. Push the handle and it spins and spins. Very well made by whomever. I keep thinking the handle has either been repaired or made up as an afterthought (very plain grasp, ill-fitting grasp shaft, solder on front and back of counterbalance) after so much effort was expended on the reel!!