Ranchero50
Well-known member
Maybe not the right subforum but I thought more folks would see this here.
Went fishing yesterday with the oldest, shot some video of the boat playing around and then we went up through the shallows to a quarry area, one huge flat rock face underwater that the boy wanted to go swimming in 3-5' of water. So while he's swimming I'm fishing, he's picking up trash and I'm looking for lures etc. (I wish I had a dollar for every tube or fluke on the bottom)...
About the time I saw this aluminum flashlight on the bottom he pulled up the reel... The reel was prety crusty with mud, sand and some rust, even had the old woven fishing line still on it.
So today I chipped away at the rust with a dental pick and took the cover off. Sand and mud...
Continued cleaning it with nothing more aggressive than warm soaky water and the pick and got it most of the way apart. Remarkably the parts moved once free of the rust.
The line guide was pretty frozen though...
So I set up a little electrolosis vat to derust it and an hour later...
It's all apart. I oiled it to prevent flash rust and I'm going to clean up the rest of the parts. Most of the chrome has washed away but there is remarkably little real rust. The spool fell apart but it doesn't look like it was made heavy back in the day.
Not too sure what I'll do with it, probably turn it into fishing room art. I'm not sure why it was tossed either, the handle was unscrewed, not broken off and it has the old style line still on. The only date I found for this reel was 1951 so any help dating it or the line would be helpful. I wonder how long it's been in the water? Pretty cool find either way.
Jamie
Went fishing yesterday with the oldest, shot some video of the boat playing around and then we went up through the shallows to a quarry area, one huge flat rock face underwater that the boy wanted to go swimming in 3-5' of water. So while he's swimming I'm fishing, he's picking up trash and I'm looking for lures etc. (I wish I had a dollar for every tube or fluke on the bottom)...
About the time I saw this aluminum flashlight on the bottom he pulled up the reel... The reel was prety crusty with mud, sand and some rust, even had the old woven fishing line still on it.
So today I chipped away at the rust with a dental pick and took the cover off. Sand and mud...
Continued cleaning it with nothing more aggressive than warm soaky water and the pick and got it most of the way apart. Remarkably the parts moved once free of the rust.
The line guide was pretty frozen though...
So I set up a little electrolosis vat to derust it and an hour later...
It's all apart. I oiled it to prevent flash rust and I'm going to clean up the rest of the parts. Most of the chrome has washed away but there is remarkably little real rust. The spool fell apart but it doesn't look like it was made heavy back in the day.
Not too sure what I'll do with it, probably turn it into fishing room art. I'm not sure why it was tossed either, the handle was unscrewed, not broken off and it has the old style line still on. The only date I found for this reel was 1951 so any help dating it or the line would be helpful. I wonder how long it's been in the water? Pretty cool find either way.
Jamie
