Ocean City Long Key reel

[Greatsouthbayman]

I bought this Ocean City long key a few months back. I collect Vom Hofe reels. This Ocean city reel though struck me as unusual in it's quality and construction. The reel is a 450 yard reel made with German silver and Hard rubber. The German silver handle, pillars and screws are all thicker and heavier than I've seen on similiar reels. Also the reel has an unusual handle knob, shaped like a tear drop and it is a different quality hard rubber, much like the hard rubber used on a Vom Hofe reel knob. So here is my question. Since we know Vom Hofe was bought out by Ocean City around 1940-41. Do you think it is possible that they used some old stock and tryed to up grade the quality and workmanship of their reels around that time? AT the last Langs Auction several Vom Hofe reels were sold that were made by Oceancity( this was known because of the date the reels were purchased by the Owner who gave them to Langs to sell). One was the 16/0 Commander Ross reel. At the auction I noticed that the crank mechcanism and the star drag were both different from the Standard Vom Hofe reels. So I know Ocean City did fiddle with some changes on Vom Hofe reels, maybe they fiddled with some on their own? I'd appericate some thoughts. Thanks Anthony

PS Here are some photo's of the Long Key reel.

[Teal]

Funny you should mention that. I just had a long conversation with two very knowledgeable collectors about Ocean City/Vom Hofe hybrids. They mentioned they had seen several OC reels with the standard vom Hofe foot on it...they have developed a theory that OC planned on using the vom Hofe name and thus in 1940/41 they sold several models marked with traditional OC/Montague names and with vom Hofe parts. Of course, WWII put an end to this and then with the restart after the war, they moved in an entirely different direction.

However, OC was quite capable of making quality reels before the vom Hofe purchase.

-- Dr. Todd

[Greatsouthbayman]

Yes they did. I have a Ocean city Orlando reel that looks like it was made by JA Coxe. Very well made with the same drag as a Coxe reel.

[Reel Geezer]

My early 1930's Ocean City catalogs (1931-1934) show the Long Key reel looking exactly like your photos. I'd guess that was an early OC reel, not a 1940s reel. However, I am not qualified to speak about OC salt water reels, and am not sure when the Long Key came out. It does not show in the 1920's advertisements I have, and I have no 1920's OC catalogs.

[Greatsouthbayman]

Did it have the same handle Knob?

[john elder]

Here's a thread we had on these reels awhile back:

http://reeltalk.orcaonline.org/viewtopi ... t=long+key

I've pulled my pics long ago, but if you look at the ones posted by jeff Johnson in that thread, note the foot on that reel...same as the one I have on mine...and it's screaming Vom Hofe in style and quite different than the one on yours. We also had a dialogue on handles and came to the conclusion that you could find them with both types of knobs (catalogue pic in that thread, as well)...but that may further date them.

[Greatsouthbayman]

Thank you, very interesting and some nice reels. This past Lang's Auction in May I purchased several of the Vom Hofe reels, like I stated in my opening of this thread they were made after 1940. So my guess is that they were made by Ocean city, and sold under the Vom Hofe name. Several of the reels had handle nuts that were round, but were milled as one piece being part of the handle itself. So this was an improvement because you could no longer lose the handle nut. (but then again you could lose the handle). Another unusual part is these reels were all wide spool (custom made) but none of the reels have serial numbers. All have the correct model numbers and sizes. In the auction there was a group of three reels being sold as Vom hofe that were magnificent small bait casters, no names on the reels, no numbers except for the sizes. They were clearly made by someone who worked for Vom hofe, high quality reels. All of them had the same nonremovebale handle nut on them as the reels I bought marked Vom hofe. It kind on made me wonder what Ocean City made and sold under the Vom hofe name after they bought the company.

[Reel Geezer]

Did it have the same handle Knob?

Yes.

[Jeff Johnson]

I cant awnswer any of your questions but I do know they used that handle grasp on what appears to be the life of the Long Key Reel. I have posted a sampling of the reels I have collected and they are all slightly different.The nickle silver reels dont look like they are any heavier built then the plated models. The reels biggest differences are the variations of handle nuts , bearing caps , spider washers and free spool levers. The 2 reels with the Vom Hofe style foot are what I would call the 750 yard reels. The others are marked 450 or 500 yards.











[URL=http://orcaonline.org/images/pixel.gif? ... eels009up3

[ReelMan1988]

Here are our 5 Long Keys.

"Notice that 2 of them have really round handles due to that they were made around WW2 and Ocean City just resorted to wood?

[orourke]

reelman 1988:

What is the deal with the second one in from the right? It doesn't look like the others. It also has some engraving on the foot. The reel looks like a J.A. Coxe with a different handle.

What does it say on the foot?

Dave "O"


Sorry, just looked again at the pillars, they do not look like Coxe.

Still interested as to what is engraved on foot. I see it is the only reel that has it.

[ReelMan1988]

The last 2 on the right have the same foot. The 5th one says long key 450yd and the fourth one says long key 500yd. I picked that one up because it was only $9 and in mint!

[Tony Malatesta]

1932 is the earliest mention of the Long Key that i can find and i only see mentioned the 450,500,and 600 yrd. models.

[Tony Malatesta]

Hi Guys! Further to this post. I see mentioned that some collectors have 5 different models of the Long Key yet i,ve only identifed 3 of them ,all of which are mentioned as late as 1941.Does anyone have more detailed info. on the later models and when they wer made canadian

[m3040c]

1941 is the last year for the Long Key. I believe the reel was introduced in 1931 made in german silver without any plating. In 1932 the Long Key was plated. The Long Key model only has a ten year production run and in those ten years there were many surface changes in handle and free spool levers.
Basically the auto-matic free spool lever entered the picture in 1935. Any Long Key with a standard free spool lever is pre-1935. The handle knobs were a constant changing feature.
The earliest Long Key has the tear dropped shaped knobs with the oiler in the end of the knob, then the knob lost the oiler in 1935. In 1938 the Torpedo knob with the metal standoff was used, I believe the first Torpedo knobs were wood. In 1940 the torpedo knob and standoff became one piece of molded plastic. In my opinion, the 1938 torpodo knob with the metal standoff was the best of all and built to a true big game standard.
In the early days of the Long Key production there was only a 450 and 500 yard model with the stamped German Silver foot, the cast Vom Hofe style foot was used on the 600 yard version that was introduced about 1935.
A interesting point about the Vom Hofe connection is that in 1942, Ocean City formally put Vom Hofe reels into their catalog, not a good year for a new merger, ... Anyways, in the 1942 OC catalog, all Ocean City standard big game reels disappear and Ocean City introduced the Vom Hofe style cradle reels into their catalog along with a brand new line of cradle reels for Ocean City. By 1942, the only true big game reel that Ocean City sold was the Edward Vom Hofe, Commander Ross model, all other OC big game reels were cradle reels. The Long Key was gone.