[Hamish Young]

Folks,
A small collection of reels has come to me for some TLC and to be sold.
I need a wee bit of help with two of the reels. Specifically, I need an idea of their age.
First one is quite interesting, comes from Browns of Aberdeen. Trouble is, I have no idea of how old it is or if it was made for Browns by someone else. Any ideas

The second reel is a Hardy Uniqua, it's a wide spool model. Again, I'm having some difficulty ageing this reel. The Hardy marks are on the spool but not on the backplate of the reel. This makes it different to previous Uniqua reels I've seen.
Any ideas

Other reels include a Mallochs of Perth sidecaster and a JW Young Pridex.
Other goodies.... well..... more on them later

H 

[Alex Burnett]

Hamish

Not certain but it could be from after 1901 when James Harper took over the William Brown business.
William Brown if I am not mistaken used to engrave Wm Brown Aberdeen on his reels or
variations to that but always "Wm Brown"

Alex

[Hamish Young]

Thanks Alex 

I have done a wee bit more digging and it turns out the first reel is a Dingley D3, this is down to the 8 spoke design of the spool and it turns out is has D3 marked on the inside..... doh Clever wee reel, I like it.
Anyway, turns out Walter Dingley moved from reel maker to reel maker before working for Hardy Bros, where he is widely accredited with design of the drag system in the Silex. Getting back to the reel, my minimal research suggests that Dingley went on to work for Wallkers of Brampton before setting up on his own reel making business post WW1. His company produced 'badge engineered' reels for many shops and minor manufacturers as well as marketing the reel directly - much like Hardy.
Cool 
Still tricky to put a definitive date on it, but probably 1920's.

I'll take the Hardy Uniqua apart later this evening and see what's what.

H 

[Derek Roxborough]

Hamish it's Walker Bampton, in their day they were considered to be better tackle makers than Hardy, to have a Walker Bampton rod was something to aspire to, they were in Alnwick on the left just past the town gate going toward the castle, your Uniqa looks to be a really early one,as the later one i had had the Telephone catch for the reel release
, there were a couple of other rodmakers round Alnwick, who were reckoned to make rods every bit as good as Hardys but you had to wait whereas you could get a Hardys rod off the shelf as it were, I am restoring one of those little brass pirns, it has no name but is a well made little reel, easgach 1

[Hamish Young]

Thanks for that 

Ok, so I've now stripped and cleaned the Uniqua. I would never use a chemical cleaner on an old reel so instead have used some elbow grease, some gun oil and a fine polishing cloth. It's come up really well and looks lovely, will try and post a photo or three later. There's no serial number on it, but there is a '5' on the spool and body. I'm not an authority on Hardy gear (although I've service many an old Hardy Perfect in the past) but something about this Uniqua intrigues me, more research needed methinks.

The Malloch 'sidecaster' is a bloody monster of a thing Clever design and beautifully crafted. They really did make reels out of solid stuff back then.

Will take a few photos of all of them once cleaned, they've not been stored well. From what I understand they've been in a fisherman's creel in a shed for over 30 years without seeing the light of day. The creel itself is interesting..... I think it may also be Hardy.

Anyway.... back to the cleaning and photo taking 

H 

[Mike Barrio]

Cool ..... interesting stuff

[Hamish Young]

This is the Uniqua after a gentle cleaning:

The Dingley, which has simply been oiled:

And the Malloch Sidecaster, which I've just started on:

All nice reels to work on and something a wee bit different

H 

[Hamish Young]

A cursory search through the wonders of ebay has peaked my curiosity even more, am sending some pics to a collector of old reels to see what he thinks.
According to some information that has come my way by email it seems Dingley made reels for Browns of Aberdeen for no more than 5 years and not in any great number which suggests it could be quite collectable. Particularly as it's a caliper drag model.
Dating that Uniqua is proving to be a challenge - but one I'm enjoying more than I thought I would
I've had very different opinions on it's age so unless the collector can shed some light then I'll ask the makers themselves and see what they come up with.

H