The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Nobby, I think that your statements on the type and quality of wood used are spot on! I am not a wood expert by any means, but from all that I have read and heard the better reels were made from seasoned hardwood. It may well be that stains and dyes changed the appearance of the original wood considerably, but many reel makers began to add brass "stiffening" to the inside of the back plate to lessen the chance of warping. The problem with that, was that it obviously added weight to the reel. As I have said, I am no expert on wood types, but I have seen far more reels of the "mahogany" family, than either walnut, rosewood or any other wood.

I know that you would like Rosewood to Revolution, or the Phil Waller book "Collecting For All" is a good read and certainly less expensive than Rosewood to Revolution. Both these men if you don't know of them, have spent many years researching and then writing about a subject that fascinates both them and me. The development and evolution of centre pin reels! I have begun finding out more about rod makers recently, so the interest in traditional tackle lives on! All the best, Ted.

I've finally got around to searching my Milwards catalogues and discovered that all their wooden sea reels were made of 'seasoned walnut'. It seems reasonable to presume their smaller coarse fishing cousins were made of the same material. The catalogues in question are for the 1956 and 1962 seasons and only have sea reels listed such as the Mariner, Overseas and Africa.

It seems wooden reels for coarse fishing were already dropped by Milwards.


Incidentally there's a long forgotten picture of Bernard Venables, looking exhausted and dwarfed by a 1500 shark caught off the coast of Maderia. His rod has an enormous set to it and the Scarborough type reel is as big as a football!

Milwards were also listing the Floatcraft Mark II, a Trudex re-badged for them, as early as 1956, having dropped the Rapidex badged for them as a Floatcraft

I saw the Bernard Venables picture many years ago, it reminded me of pictures of huge Tuna caught off our coast when they used to come here on the gulf stream and be regularly fished for and caught! Milwards sea reels were indeed made from seasoned walnut and a sight to behold! I have seen some unused in boxes, with the famous Milwards "Iron Arm" logo untouched.The cost and sourcing of quality wood became a big issue for some of the larger makers, with many models only having short production runs as a consequence. A golden time in reel production, perhaps you can see why it fascinates me!

That beautiful reel could have been made by David Slater of Newark ~ "Slater latch", handle base plates etc.

I did some research into Mr Slater some years ago and I recall that he used "finest seasoned hardwoods including Walnut, Mahogany and Cherry" for his Nottingham reels