And since the 40 is underlined, I understand this means it was made by Hendryx after they were bought by Winchester? Is that correct?
About when is it from?
Approximate value?
I bought this reel from a man who had sold me a 7 1/2 ft Edwards Quadrate rod that had belonged to his father or grandfather. He couldn't find a reel or etc. at the time. Six months later he brings me some assorted fly fishing tackle and this reel.
Do you think it could be a match for the rod? Is it period appropriate or is the rod newer than the reel?
40 yard size, small spool, smaller than most of the raised pillar flyweight type reels I have. 2 1/4 pillar to pillar.
Yes, Armax was a Winchester trade name, mainly on rods from what memory serves but i have seen it on fly reels and baitcasters. The reel dates from the 1920s, when old Eustice Edwards was working for Winchester (1919-1924). The 7 1/2 footer was the best known and liked of the Winchester Edward fly rods, according to A.J. Campbell (check your facts on that one, folks). Phil White lists all Edwards fly rods as beginning with the 61XX catalog code. Is there a number on the rod?
The other possibility is that the reel was purchased separately from the rod; Edwards went off on his own briefly before joining Bristol/Horton.
I believe it is likely that this was the combo the old man fished with. Whether they are both Winchesters I don't know.
I've got some semantics clarifications - Armax was a Winchester name. Their use of Armax, Hendryx, Barney & Berry, etc. is really more like Pflueger, Portage, 4-Brothers usage by Enterprise. The only real difference being that the products were mostly the same as the Winchester line.
It was not made by Hendryx after Winchester bought them, because there was no Hendryx after Winchester bought them - except as mentioned above with Armax. Hendryx no longer existed, except as a name that was revised c1925.
The reel was from the 1924-30 time period.
The reel is $100+ (if EX) with the Winchester name, so it is probably 50% with the Armax name. It should be more than $50 however.
At the time of the reel, E. W. Edwards was about gone from Winchester. His contract expired in 1924 and he left to start up another Edwards company. I believe the Quadrate rods were built by his son Bill Edwards after their Bristol Edwards rod venture, and the rod is probably a decade newer than the reel. However, it sure could have been purchased to use on that rod, for things stayed on store shelves a lot longer those days than they do now.
Sorry for the semantic slip-up, although all labels by one company are technically "trade names" it is not how most people understand the term. "Brand names" such as Armax, Crusader, Hendryx were indeed all manufactured by Winchester.
Yes, you are 100% correct (as usual) about reels lying around on shelves--as crazy Winchester bidders show, even Horrocks-Ibbotson/Winchester items bring top dollar nowadays. At the last Louisville national I walked through a great Winchester display with Chris Labuz, dean of the H-I guys, and watched him point to piece after piece that was actually H-I marketed items. They still advertised some Winchester pieces in the late 1940s from what I understand...that's a LOT of extra stock.
The longest I ever heard of a Winchester item on the store shelves was the old Berger Hardware in Superior, WI. A very odd man, old man Berger made his money buying World War I surplus, opened a huge store, and kept all of the old stock under the counters. When my dad, brother and old friend Jack Banks started collecting in the 1980s, we would hit his store often and deplete his old stock, which always seemed to renew itself. We bought Paw Paw counter displays, dealer boxes of Shur-Brite lures, dealer boxes of W&McGill Bug-A-Boos, and passed on the four Winchester reels new in box sitting there since the 1920s.
We were very silly in those days, running after lures and passing on those thousands of reels. Sigh.
The 40-yard skeleton would be OK for a 7 1/2' bamboo fly rod because, in the days of silk fly lines, it would have held enough to balance the rod and allow for a cast of decent length. Today I'd mount a 60 or 80-underlined Armax or similar skeleton reel with a weight forward line for that rod.
Neat little reel. A classic (of course, I'm pretty biased in this regard).
