EclecticGuy » antique

A “Reel” Portrait

EclecticGuy — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:37:24 +0000

I’ve just completed the cover design for my book The Reelsmith’s Primer! I am now completely done with everything. I wanted to feature a photo of some of my reels on the back cover so I set up this photo. I call it a “family portrait” since it includes my very first reel (the one sitting on the deerskin pouch) to my most recent (the black and brass one).

I also took this photo of my most recent reel.

This reel is brass and Delrin. The spool is fabricated from Delrin sheet (1/8″) and rod (1″). The pouch is one of my custom-designed deerskin pouches and the tall skinny thing is an antique reel oiler from the late 1800s.

My “new” 19th century treadle Boley lathe!

EclecticGuy — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:50:36 +0000

I found this 19th century treadle lathe a couple of weeks ago. I finally got the leather drive belt material so I am ready to getit up and running. Although a lot of the plating is missing, mechanically the lathe is quite functional.

There are more photos here: Boley Treadle Lathe

Walton’s Twisting Engine (a labor of love!)

EclecticGuy — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:56:59 +0000

This falls in the “this eclecticguy is crazy” department! Or, maybe not! I’ve been furling fly fishing leaders for a number of years and have known about these twisting engines. Darrel Martin has photos of a reproduction engine and a woodcut of an old engine in his book “The Fly-Fisher’s Craft: The Art and History“. I did a little research and called Darrel to ask about his engine before designing this one. The trickiest part is the gearing. There are 3 smaller gears around a central gear that is attached to the crank shaft. This engine furls 3 strands of horsehair, gut or line. On mine, these are in a 1-3 ratio; each crank of the handle rotates the smaller gears/hooks 3 times.

These engines were used to make horsehair fly lines. Modern Atlantic Salmon fly tyers like to use them for twisting silkworm gut to snell their flies.

Here are some construction photos:

It starts out a lot like a reel; brass plates cut in to squares, octagons and finally round:

With a lot of gears:

These are small, at 2 1/4″ diameter:

The hooks were actually fairly difficult to reproduce because they are tapered and the tapered section is bent. It is tricky enough making nice bends on straight sided brass rod!

And here is the finished twisting engine, polished and ready to ship. You can see my new logo and maker’s stamps.

The woodcuts I’ve seen show the gears enclosed but I decided to keep mine exposed. It is fascinating watching all of that motion when the engine is in operation! Plus, lubricating the mechanism is much easier. This twisting engine is going to my friend Paul at Historic Angling Enterprises. Apparently, he uses his engine every day to make horsehair snoods. He has worn out several “inferior” engines. I hope mine is over-engineered enough for him!

Antique Brass Fly Reels

EclecticGuy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:24:41 +0000

My new friend from Texas emailed me a few reels from his collection of early fly reels to photograph and measure. I’ve been looking for an early clamp foot reel to photograph and measure with the thought of reproducing them. I would like to have a few to fish with my wood strip rods that I make.

Well, the reels arrived today! They are much smaller than I imagined. The largest is only 1 11/16″ in diameter! One of the reels is a clamp foot and is dated to the late 1700s. I believe it is the heart shaped clamp bolt head that is the key indicator for dating this reel, but I will get the details soon. The reel is nicely made with brass posts riveted to the front and back plates. These plates are hollowed out so the spool insets in to them. I’ve scrutinized the spools on all 4 reels with a magnifying lens and it looks like they are turned from a single piece of brass. The axel and spool plates do not show any signs of a seam. The handle on the little clamp foot is nicely shaped and appears to be bone or maybe ivory. Here are some more photos of it:

You can see some more photos here: Early Clamp Foot Reel

The other 3 reels have more contemporary reel feet. These reels are not as old but still early. The smallest of the set is only 1 5/16″ in diameter.

More photos of this reel here: Standard Reel Foot #1

This is the smallest of the reels:

More photos of this reel here: Standard Reel Foot #2

The last of these three is missing its handle but is in really nice condition otherwise.

More photos of this reel here: Standard Reel Foot #3