My contribution is the reel and a horse hair line. I’ve already blogged about how I rediscovered line making, so I won’t cover that again. The reel I recreated is based on a reel I borrowed that is attributed to the period and location – mid 1800s, New York. I had permission to carefully peek inside the reel so I could more accurately reproduce it.

My goal was not just to make a “looks like the original” but to actually reproduce the techniques and use the same tools the original reelsmith used. Although there is no way to know for sure, there are always tell tale signs that are left as evidence. For instance, metal spinning leaves a distinctive pattern of concentric impressions on the curved surface. This was the technique used to make the spool plates. It is an old technique and an art form. At first I thought the front plate cover was spun too, but close scrutiny under high magnification showed that it was actually hollowed on the lathe.

It was through careful scrutiny and studying 19th century tools and techniques that I was able to piece together how this reel was made. The only deviation that I know I made was the reel foot and bracket. the original are obviously cast and are most likely bronze based on their slightly reddish coloration. I don’t currently have the means to cast brass and bronze (it is on my list of things to do!) so I used solid brass stock and formed it by cold and hot forging. Not quite the same but a reasonable alternative. Next time I’ll cast these parts!

Here is the construction process as I approached it. First, here are some photos of the model reel:

This reel is a multiplier – meaning that for each crank of the handle, the spool rotates more than one revolution (2 1/2 in this case) – and has a stop latch to lock the spool from rotating). It is about 2″ in diameter and has an original, unmolested long reel foot. The screws are all hand cut and the grip is most likely ivory.

To fabricate this reel, I started with the front plate and cover. This was turned from a 2″ diameter section of brass rod.

The cone in the center was also turned and slightly hollowed on the inside with a graver. The decorative bands were cut with a graver on the lathe. The plate has a small rebate around its edge for the cover to fit on. The cover will be fastened with 3 screws.

Next up is the reel foot and bracket assembly. The foot was formed from .064″ brass that was pounded in to shape in a concave wooden mold. The bracket is just a bar of brass that was hot forged to make it flow a little to simulate the cast part on the original. The concave cradle for the foot was cut with a half round file. The bracket is riveted to the foot with two 1/8″ brass rods.

The back plate was fabricated similarly to the front plate. Here are the front and back plate assembled to the reel foot bracket.
I hand made the screws from drill rod. The originals appeared to be #3 and maybe 50TPI. I only had 4-40 taps and dies so I used those. But I took care to make the screw heads the proper shape and size. Here is a bottom view of the assembly with the front cover in place.

The pillars were turned from 1/8″ D brass rod. The end that attaches to the back plate is turned down to 1/16″ to fit holes in the back plate and will be peened in place. The front end is also reduced in size (3/32″) for mating holes in the front plate.
The spool was a complex part to fabricate. The spool plates were formed using lathe spinning. This is how the originals were made. It was an easy technique to master. The spindle is my design since I could not take the reference reel apart to see how it was put together. But, it makes sense based on close scrutiny and similarity to other reels that I have completely disassembled.

The spool plates are silver soldered to the spindle. Here is the completed spool assembly.

An 8 tooth pinion attaches to the 1/8″ shaft on the right side of the spindle.  Here is the frame and spool dry assembled.

With this work complete, it was time to turn to the mechanicals – the stop latch and multiplier mechanisms. The stop latch consists of a small lever and a brass spring fitted with a steel pin. The lever lifts the spring and pin out of a hole that passes through the plate and spool. The ball head on the lever was tricky. The original lever end is egg shaped and appeared to be shaped by hand, not turned on a lathe. I used files to fabricate mine. The end opposite the handle has a 45 degree bevel to act as a wedge to lift the spring. You can see it in this photograph.

The handle is attached to the main gear (20 tooth). The gear pivots on an idler post fabricated from steel. I attached this from the back with an oval head 2-56 screw. I don’t know how the original was done but this made sense.

The main gear was re-shafted and turned to final shape. The end was cut to a square with a file to mate with the handle crank.

The handle assembly was straight forward. The crank shape was copied from the original. The brass is thicker at the hub end than the handle end. I tapered it with cold forging and files. The hub end has a square hole to receive the main gear shaft. The grip is “vegetable ivory” – Tagua Nut. I started the fatiguing process of it.

Here’s a top view of the mechanical assembly.

The last thing to do was peen the pillar ends to form a nice rivet head. Once this is done, the reel can not be disassembled. Here are some photos of the new reel next to the original reel.

That completes the assembly of the reel. The last task is to lightly distress and patina it to look used. I am going for the “10 year” look of a used and cared-for reel. Photos to follow.

And here is the reel attached to the reproduction Porter’s General rod created by Drbaits.

There are more photos here: Boley Treadle Lathe

Here is a short overview from the blog to describe what we are doing and who we are:

Hello!

This blog has been put up to track the work of the Van Buren Boys, a crack team of fishing nuts who have been charged with creating a historically accurate ca. 1850s fishing kit that would have been used by President Martin van Buren. In the following weeks we will have photos, commentary, and articles from the Van Buren Boys updating everyone on the progress of the work.

Trust me when I say you will all be blown away by this project!

– Dr. Todd
–
Dr. Todd Larson who heads the group and will be writing the history of Van Buren and Fishing.

Dr. John Elder is an accomplished rod maker and woodworker extraordinaire. John will be charged with constructing an 1850s-period Porter General rod and a period tackle box.

Philip Allen is a metalsmith genius. Philip will be in charge of constructing period 1850s metal spinners and flights, which Van Buren used for muscky fishing on the St. Lawrence.

Royce Stearns is a fly tier so good you think the flies will fly off his vise. Royce will be tying period 1850s flies.

Dr. Michael Hackney is a renaissance man who can make just about anything. Michael will be reproducing a period 1850s fishing reel in brass and constructing a horsehair line.

Follow the blog to watch as we create an exhibit worthy of a President!

Since making these items is just a hobby for me, I intend for Eclectic Angler to be a resource as much as a store. I’ll show people how to make a horsehair line, sell them the hair, or sell them the completed line. My goal is to develop a community around making and using your own fly fishing equipment. The site is no where near complete but I wanted to get the framework and basic design started so I can get feedback and start automating orders.

I’m handling all of the design, development and e-commerce myself using a combination of Open Source, RapidWeaver (all I can say about it is “wow”), GoDaddy, and PayPal. Putting the site together is almost as much fun as building the items themselves! This process has also given me a great perspective on what a new small business must go through to launch a web presence. There are lots of decisions and options and pricing alternatives. I can see why new business people are perplexed!

So, without further adieu, I give you The Eclectic Angler.

It also looks like I’ll be writing an article for The Home Shop Machinist magazine on how to build these.

Given the large response (believe it or not!) I had to that post, I decided to write an article for the Webzine Power Fibers covering the same topic with a lot more detail and full color photographs.

Power Fibers is published quarterly by Todd Talsma and the new edition (Issue 36) came out today. Power Fibers is available as an annual subscription on CD but Todd also makes the current issue freely available until the next issue is published. Todd gave me permission to place a copy of my article here: Horeshair_Fly_Lines_PowerFibers_Issue_36.

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

As you can see, this is the same fly in different colors. It is an extremely simple but effective fly when fished tenkara. It only requires a hook, thread and rooster hackle to tie! Dr. Ishigaki always fishes barbless hooks (as do I). It is fished in all four tenkara techniques: on the surface, mid depth, deep, and “streamer like”. This last is a presentation where the fly is animated by twitching the rod. 

I’ll be tying some of these and posting a simple step-by-step, so stay tuned.

Yesterday, my son Nick and I drove 4 hours (each way) to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in Livingston Manor, NY to see Dr. Hisao Ishigaki give a presentation and demonstration on tenkara fishing (Japanese fly fishing). How I learned about this event and tenkara fishing is an interesting story in itself!

Followers of my blog might have seen a comment made last Thursday (May 21) by CM_Stewart on my Horse-hair Fly Line post. “Chris”, as it turns out, is an early practitioner of tenkara here in the US. He is interested in horse hair lines for this fishing method and through that interest, found my post. In his comment, he mentioned tenkara fishing.

Since I am fanatically interested in anything related to fly fishing, I followed up with some serious googling to find any information on tenkara I could. Unfortunately, there is very little information available in English on the Web, but with a little persistence the story can be put together. I corresponded with Chris via comments on my post and then through email to get more information on tenkara and his experiences making horse hair line. Chris mentioned that Dr. Ishigaki was giving a tenkara presentation and demonstration in 2 days at the Catskill Museum that he was planning to attend. The event was billed as the first presentation and demonstration of tenkara in the United States and would be a historic moment in fly fishing. How could I pass that up?!

What I learned prior to the event is that tenkara is a type of fly fishing that uses a long (12′ to 15′) nimble rod, a light line the same length or slightly longer, and a fly. There is no reel and no guides on the rod. The fly line is attached to a short section of line attached to the tip of the rod. Here is a photo I took of Dr. Ishigaki with a beautiful bamboo rod built by his friend.

In many respects, tenkara is similar to early western fly fishing with loop rods. One big difference is that the loop rod, being constructed of wood, is quite a bit heavier than an equivalent tenkara rod, which is made from bamboo. The availability of over 50 types of bamboo in Japan allowed the rod maker to create very light, long rods with excellent action. These are not split bamboo rods like those developed in the US during the 19th century, but rather, sections of whole bamboo fitted together. Anglers in the west evolved fly fishing equipment to allow casting a fly with a shorter rod and reel to hold extra fly line. Japanese anglers in the high mountain regions continued to use the nimble rods and tenkara technique – which is perfectly suitable to the small streams and relatively small trout and char found there.

Being an avid rod builder, I searched for sources of tenkara blanks with which to build a rod. Existing commercial rods are telescoping graphite tubes that extend to 12′ to 15′ and include a simple cork handle – no guides, no reel seat. My search was not successful – at least for information available in English. I did discover Tenkara USA - a new company that just opened for business last month. TenkaraUSA is the only US company specializing in tenkara equipment and promotion of the style. So, I corresponded with the owner of Tenkara USA to see if they offered or would consider offering tenkara rod blanks. Daniel Galharod – the passion behind Tenkara USA – replied that he was attending the Catskill event and would have rods there to demonstrate. He also said that he had been thinking about custom tenkara rods and would continue the discussion when he returned home after the weekend. Yet another reason to head for the Catskills – to meet Daniel and try out some of his rods!

On Saturday morning, Nick and I got up bright and early, watched the first half of my youngest son’s soccer game, and then headed west to the Catskills. We arrived 15 minutes before the presentation. I met Chris at the door and we compared horse hair lines and talked about tenkara and loop rod fishing for a few minutes before the presentation started. I recorded the audio (which was translated from Japanese by Misako Ishimura, who happens to be the chair of the World Fly Fishing of Japan!) and took photos and a few short videos of the event.

The presentation was very interesting and informative. I will be writing more about some of the history and tenkara technique I learned from Dr. Ishigaki in several follow-on posts. Here are a couple of highlights;

Dr. Ishigaki demonstrating 1 of the 4 tenkara techniques. I’ll post more on these later.

Joan Wulff was the first volunteer to try tenkara after the demonstration. It was a special event indeed!

Here’s Nick trying out tenkara. Dr. Ishigaki thought he was a natural and thought Nick should come to Japan and study tenkara! 

After the demonstrations, Nick and I spent some time with Dr. Ishigaki and Misako to thank him and to give him a replica of a an 18th century fly I tied for him. The hook was eyeless and the finished fly had a 20″ horse hair braided snell (3 hairs). Dr. Ishigaki appreciated the gift and returned the favor with 2 Japanese flies tied by his friend. Finally, I asked if he would like a horse tail line made especially for him. He said he would like one, so I will be making a special tenkara horse hair line for him!

You can see some more photos – especially of the streamside demonstration on my photo site.