The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Lovely job on that reel.

I know a bit about local copper plating, it’s what I did for a living. Is copper hard enough to serve as a spindle?
I’m more intrigued by the ‘soft brake’ you’ve incorporated in the reel? How was this done, please?

I'll bet none of them looked that good when new. Excellent jobs.

Wal.

Absolutely gorgeous John... any of those would work well on the Wally...

Great work John well done

What a brilliant job! They should be good for a few more years fishing.

Thank you for all your kind comments, as to the method used;
1. copper plating of the spindle was done using the brush technique. Basically I wrapped a small piece of kitchen roll round a piece of copper pipe then dipped it in copper sulphate solution, connect the pipe to the positive terminal of a 3 volt supply (can be a battery) and the negative terminal to the spindle. Then just brush the spindle up and down the spindle and plating will appear. Note the spindle must be very clean or the plating won't work, also this way you don't have to remove the spindle from the starback.
2. Whilst copper isn't very hard, when hard and soft metal rub it is normally the hard metal that wears first but as this reel will not see much use it doesnt really matter to me.
3. Wally Roy if you pm me your address I will post 1 to you, just make a donation to the forum funds after you have seen it.
4. The soft brake is just a pad of leather on a sprung arm which presses into the side of the spool when engaged, unfortunately the leather pad came of (probably when I was fighting a large gudgeon) and will be replaced. A redesign of the arm is required as I fear this will happen again, hence the current one is epoxied on, the final arm will be soldered. Even without the pad it worked well and whilst the gudgeon didn't take any line a small bream of about 4 ounces did.

Apologies for not cleaning the reel before photographing


JW

Very nice looking reels. I have one about 3” no check and another a bit bigger with a simple check. Both have a single brass fixing (ie not a cross type) on the rear. I use them at least once a year. I have had them for at least fifty years, so don’t know their actual age. No maker or marks on either.