First I want to say I have been looking for this reel for awhile. I believe Bruce Davis has one but that is the only other one I know of.
Mine is in the box in very good cosmetic and working condition. Mechanically it is absolutely normal with no wear at all. Cosmetically, there is some plating loss and very minor marks on the side plates but no cracks or chips. I know I sound like a listing on EBay but I just want to talk about this reel.
If we all go to the Penn website history section we can see that in late 1933 Penn filled an order for four reels, one of them being a Seaford. Now I have a 1934 or 35 Seaford with 4 pillars which is built on a Long Beach type side plate without a star drag. I knew that a 3 pillar Seaford existed but I had no idea that the 3 pillar version would be so different than the 4. I assumed the 3 pillar Seaford would be built off a Penn Model K sideplate that Penn ordered from Kuhn Jacobs. Penn did use a Kuhn Jacobs side plate for this reel but only on one side. The handle side is not a Jacobs and does not fit in with Penn type technology. It is more like a Pflueger. Here I am thinking that the most important aspect of this reel would be the 3 pillars and it turns out that the free spooling mechanism is the major difference from Penn's other reels.
Time for some pictures:::::::::::::::::
First the box, which is in great condition for a 73 year old box with a completely readable labled. I feel lucky, even though my van broke down today,
Then the opening and seeing an unusual looking Penn. The first thing that hit my eye was the handle bearing which seems to high for a penn reel.
Now this is the condition that she came out of the box as. Not bad at all and fully functional. The logo is stating that the reel is Patent Pending but does not match the patent blueprints of the Model F or K. At this point I start wondering what is inside that side plate. The bridge area of the right side plate is round like a Model F or Sea Hawk but there is a free spool lever which does not make sense. This Sea Hawk type side plate has a bridge assembly. A Sea Hawk or Model F does not have a bridge assembly, the handle pulls out to disengage the spool. Questions start bouncing around in my head. There is a lot of space for bouncing in my head. As I turm the reel around to check out the left side plate I see that it is a standard Penn Kuhn Jacobs left side plate with the waffle type clicker button. OK, no surprises on the left side.
Well, at this point I can not wait any longer. I must open up this reel and check out the guts. There are too many questions created by the outside construction. So, in I go and look what I find. A bridge assembly that pivots on one screw, slides on the other and is actuated by a standard looking Penn free spool lever. A bridge assembly that moves the main gear away from the gear that is mounted on the spool. This is not how Penn disengages a main gear from a pinon gear. This is wrong. This is Pflueger Golden West insides not Penn. But this is a Penn or at best a Penn hybrid. I look for the Circle K brand but can not find it. I would like to see the Penn Patent for this reel, that is supposed to be pending according to the side plate.
When I check the inside of the left side plate I find what I expected, the Circle K brand that identifies the Kuhn Jacobs side plate in its normal configuration. In Penn's first year of production they are already mixing and matching to create new breeds.
Then there is that crazy streched out spool bearing that fits the traditional Penn wrench perfectly. It barely clears the handle. I can imagine that if the reel gets used enough and the handle gets a slight bend in it the bearing will hit the underside of the handle.
So there you have my new discovery. I hope this reel opens some new roads into Penn history and raises some questions.
I thank any member that has stayed with me this far. Sometimes I get carried away.
