Reviving old bakelite spool

[eric]

Hi all. I recently purchased a NIB English Mark 2 black Tatler reel. The reel would be at least 50 years old, with the Mark 2 sized reels being fairly rare due to being discontinued early on in Tatler reel production. The reel has a bakelite spool which I tried to spool with 15 kg (30lb) mono line.

Long story short, the spool cracked 3/4 of the way through spooling resulting in it warping and rubbing against the off side reel housing. No excess tension was applied to the line, so I put the cracking down to the 'age' of the bakelite, or having become 'brittle'.

I intend to buy another Tatler reel off eBay and use the half spool to replace the cracked one.

Is there any way of 'reviving' old bakelite that you would know of? I have read on one site that soaking old bakelite in 'Nutrogina' brand bath oil does the trick???. Heating bakelite is definitely not recommended.

I would appreciate any suggestions to save me going through the same hassle with the next spool.

Regards
Eric 

[mizmo67]

Part of the problem is that the bakelite spools were made with use of old style linen lines in mind.

Modern monos and braids put too much tension on the plastic type materials and even a good condition spool may break under the strain.

Most of what I've read about restoring bakelite is really just removing the oxidation from the surface.
I can't see that it would have any effect on increasing durability of the spool.

Others who've tried it might have more input on that.

[bluefish69]

Way back when Mono first came out in the '60s we were told to put a backing of Nylon or Dacron on the spools. They were exploding from the Mono pressure going sideways.

Mike