I am finding it quite difficult to establish when this reel was made, or what model name it was known by. We know that it is Reuben Heaton reel, and that the perforated drum and spindle axle were patented on 24 December 1881.
More modern fly reels had a solid side, and even the flyfisherman’s second catalogue , produced in South Africa in 1983 was selling solid wall spool reels …in other words reels with no holes. So this manufacturer from Birmingham was truly ahead of his time! The reel is made from brass and German silver, but with sides made of a material called Ebonite…a type of sulphur hardened rubber.
The original patent for these reels (which are sometimes referred to as “Jardine Reels”) was for both the perforated drum AND the absence of a centre spindle (aka axle). My reel has no axle, hence conforming with the patent, and this is confirmed by the fact that it bears the patent stamp, which apparently those with a spindle were not allowed to carry.
Mysteriously though, the patent number for this design was variously 1881-7, or as shown in a document I found 18-817, but as you can see, mine has the number 1881 only.
It is also said that the Ebonite only came later. These factors are making it difficult for me to track down exactly when it might have been manufactured.
So having pulled this out of an old storage box and spent many hours cleaning it up, what do I plan to do with it?
A friend of mine pointed out that it should probably pair it with a Greenheart rod, given that it could well have been made before split cane. I actually have a greenheart rod, but it is a truly dreadful stick, useful only for a museum wall. So my plan is to wait for that long hoped-for ship to come in, and then I will put it on a bamboo fly rod.
And fish it.
