The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

They do look nice Nobby, thanks for the photo's.
The reel on the left looks to be earlier than mine, indicated by the plain backplate perhaps? mine has a backplate similar to the later reels.
I know what you mean about the 'feel', the early reels really are lovely.

Marc wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:19 pm A pair of speedia would be speedia' and more than two would be a greedy swine, because you'd have many when I have none.

Perhaps those who do not yet possess one, might call anyone with more than one, a 'boast' of Speedias...

Tomeland wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2017 9:48 am Perhaps those who do not yet possess one, might call anyone with more than one, a 'boast' of Speedias...

Very good...

Crucian wrote: ↑Sun Mar 26, 2017 1:15 pm A nice old Speedia which recently joined my collection.
Anyone know the collective noun for Speedia's ? a 'Wobble', a 'Spinney' or a 'Charm' perhaps...no, that's Goldfinches.
Photographed with another Speedia for comparison, the older reel is on the left.

Spins really well, as you would expect, but unusually for a Speedia, no wobble.

Late 40's, early 50's ?

A "Batting" of Speedia's!

A 'Batting'...I like that.

My first Speedia was a wide drum and it did have a slight wobble but still ran superbly and wallis cast well.

Nobby wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:05 am I have these images, Paul......for comparison.








The reel on the left used to belong to one of our members and is similar to yours, I think.....bar the paint finish. The cork arbours were added by me, ....two layers of 1/8th. cork sheet and worked quite well. What struck me, and isn't really captured by the pictures, was the high build quality of the early reel...it's not that the later reels are poor, more that the early one had an exceptionally high hand-built quality, which was clearly the work of a very skilled engineer and it was this that led me to speculate that he might have acquired those skills before WW2 and the middle reel would bef rom the early Fifties.

the left hand one is a mk1 (flat back) post war but only just ,mid 1940's-50 ,only has 8 line pillers which are rather thin and prone too buckling ,yours is in fantastic condition ,only mk1,2's & early 3's had those chunky removable handles ,riveted handles came mid run on the mk3's .so the middle one is a mk3.2 ,that and the smaller hole size on the spool another mk3 marker.

crucian yours is a mid mk2 ,there was a point when they made a couple of small cosmetic changes too the mk2's early ones had the pill type centre and 8 line lays (mk2.1) ,then the move too a chromed nipple centre ,still with 8 line lays (mk2.2) the paint changed also they played around with textures but they otherwise stayed the same .these seem too run throughout the early 1950's

Thanks Steve, I find it all very interesting.

what would seem a simple set of reels ,is anything but ,it seems they kept tinkering with the design or just waited until old parts ran out before adding new ones .its only when they changed the logo on the back did real change in the design kick in no wonder they called it the improved model .

they are a most intresting reel .