I just thought this was kind of a strange thing that I've come across concerning the Pflueger Templar reels that I collect. At first I thought it was some wild factory experiment but the more I look at it the more I think it's some ingenious person's handiwork. Some background on these handle knobs: They are made of some type of plastic (tenite?), hollow, made in two pieces with a seam lengthwise and are about 3" long. Many end up decomposing or breaking down and shriveling up, probably due to contact with solvents.
Here's the funny thing with a reel I just got: the knob on this one looks like it was blown up like a balloon.
They're supposed to look like the one on the top in this photo.
This is definitely the factory handle but I can't see how someone could do this without popping the seams. They appear to be all intact and I can't find any hole that might have been used to "inflate" it. Whoever did this had the right idea as it's certainly easier to crank with a bigger knob. I always thought some of the old big game reels had such ridiculously small handle knobs.
Brian-Seems anglers were just tougher in the old days. If cranking with the small knob was a problem, think of casting to trout all day with an 8 ounce 9 1/2' bamboo rod-or worse still, a 14 foot greenheart or cane spey rod with a one pound Malloch brass salmon reel mounted on it. Total of nearly 2 pounds. Then you had to have the strength left to fight and land a twenty or thirty pound salmon! Bamboo is nice to fish with (you look good doing it) but blessings for graphite (and more ergonomically designed SW knobs!). Aloha-Bad Bob
