The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Ignore post - should have gone to specsavers!

Take 2!

I recently acquired for not much money, a usable if slightly tatty, tarnished and pitted Elarex reel to use for pike fishing, mainly dead baiting from my boat. The reel needed a really good clean and is still tarnished in the hard to reach areas, but mechanically it is a sweet as a nut which is surprising as was bone dry inside. I haven't dismantled it beyond taking off the handle side cover mainly to be able to add some lubrication to the gears directly as I haven't got the injector tool used for oiling from the outside.

The initials inside are those of Jack Johnson who worked for Hardys from 1938 which was the same year as the reel was introduced. Jack at that time would only have been 15 and I would imagine that the 'Unpleasantness' of the following year might have stopped production of fishing reels for a few years. That leads me to suspect that the reel was manufactured some time after the war ended, but before Hardy dropped the Royal Crest to the Late King George V & The Prince of Wales 1931-36, the King having died in January 1936. I think that Hardy stopped adding the Late King George crest before 1950 so that makes the reel, if I am correct, some time between production resuming post 1945 to 1950.

At the moment the rivers are running high and coloured and the predator season ends at the end of the month so it might be May before it gets some action.

That is a nice thing to own. Hardy were still using those crests in 1955, I have rod of that date with them engraved in the reel seat.

Hmm. So that has extended the possible production date from 1945 to at least 1955. Thank you for the information.

Whilst it's not recorded, as far as we know, what Hardy actually did during the war they were rewarded with a seven year extension to their patents by a grateful Government.
I imagine you are correct that reel manufacture would have ceased, certainly it did for JW Young, though they recieved no such gratitude, though Hardy did kindly let them breach one of their patents inside the Ambidex reel, the worm drive.

Fishing Reels, Collecting For All, volume 1 by Phil Waller, gives the Elarex production dates as 1939 to 1964.

I notice that Jack Johnson was at Hardys from 1938 through to 1966 so basically mirrored the Elarex production dates.