The Pursuit of “The State of B. Chun”

[stoked4fishin]

The Pursuit of "The State of B. Chun"

It all began about 2 months ago in Alan's garage...

Alan, Tim Dang, Joey, and I were all hanging out at Alan's working on reels to prepare for our 8 day trip on the Spirit of Adventure, eating pizza, drinking a few beers, and a shot of scotch.  I do seem to remember Joey working on two 5 gallon buckets of reels for a local Charter Boat customer.  But that's a whole other post all together.

During a brief intermission from working on one of my reels, I picked up an old reel from a box of reels, along with other assorted fishing treasures.  At the time, I didn't even look at the make/model.  What caught my eye was the small size, similar to a Penn 146 Squidder, and the cool "waffle textured" side plates.  Basically, the only thing missing was a left side bushing.  I showed it to Tim and Joey, and we all started coming up with the typical comments about "hotrodding" the reel.  We were laughing our asses off!  Alan was ignoring us, thinking we were just goofy (for the most part, he's right on that account).

Then I noticed "The Name".  Gracefully hand scribed on the left side plate was "B. Chun".  Being the cool dudes that we are, we thought that sounded like "Bitchin".  Even though both Tim and Joey were not even born in the 80's, they got the reference (like I said, their cool dudes).  Then, as we continued to talk about what we could do with the reel, Joey hit it!  He came up with the idea of "The State of B. Chun".  To be honest, we all know it means absolutely nothing, but is sounds cool (or at least funny).  We continued to BS some more about the reel, and then I set the reel aside (but not back in the box ).
Fast forward about 2 months, and the three of us are back at it at Alan's place, only this time we're going through a few reels after our 8 day trip.  Tim's going through his AVET HXJ (that likes to go swimming...a lot – Tim, you may get that one ).  Surprisingly, there was little to no impact of the reels dunking in the Pacific!  Tim had the reel in tip top shape by the end of our session.

While Joey is going through a reel for me, I picked up The B. Chun reel, it was right where I'd left it!  We started talking about hotrodding it again.  Joey asks me what the name of the actual reel is.  It's a Lawrence No. 202.  I start to look for a left side bushing.  Now Alan joins the quest for "The State of B. Chun"!  He points me several "boxes o' parts" that he thinks may have what we need.  Sure enough, there it is!  A bushing that has the right thread size, and fits the spool shaft!  After a bit of trial and error, we decide that we need to modify the length of the bushing.  Alan tells Joey to get out the Dremel!  A few minutes later, after some fine craftsmanship from Joey, we have a working bushing.  Now is when things got a bit, hhhmmm, stupid?  We decided The B. Chun reel needed a few upgrades.  We also decided we needed keep some of "the soul' of The B. Chun reel if we are to truly achieve "The State of B. Chun".  So, we added a few things.  Those will be detailed in the "Specs" section later.

We needed an appropriate rod to test The B. Chun reel on.  Tim suggested one of Alan's custom UC rods, but Alan veto'd that idea (thanks for trying Tim!).  Alan, just think about all the fish you could catch on a rod that has have achieved "The State of B. Chun"!  Alan tells us to go look in the backyard, as he has several rods to choose from.  Joey comes back with the perfect match for The B. Chun reel.  It's a rod that has been "Customized For: Joe (can't remember the last name)".  It's an old 7' glass rod.  It looks like an old brown Fenwick rod that was rewrapped.  The Hypalon is brown and as smooth as a "slick butt" handle, the reel seat is an old Varmac seat that probably weighs more than The B. Chun reel, and it has a broken guide.  Perfect match!  It is now the "B. Chun Rod"!

We put The B. Chun reel on the B. Chun Rod, strung the line through the guides, and tied on a Rick Berg "Finger" for the testing.  We chose to use the original line that was on The B. Chun reel.  In part to keep some of the "soul" of The B. Chun reel, but mainly because if it didn't work, we wouldn't waste any good line.  Joey did the testing, and was able to underhand the "Finger" about 25 yards no problem.  During the testing, we noticed that the drag would back off.  Joey figured out that we needed to fine tune the drag washer set-up.  Once that was done, the drag works great!  Now it was time to put some new line on The B. Chun reel.  After putting The B. Chun reel on the winding machine, Alan noticed that there was too much play in the spool.  He suggested a we look for a different bushing for the right side.  We couldn't find one, but he and Joey installed a "Teflon dot" in the bushing, and it is perfect!  We had several thoughts, but after finding dacron backing under the old red and green mono, we decided, that by keeping the dacron, we would be keeping some of the "soul" of the The B. Chun Reel.  So the dacron stayed, and we went with 30# Big Game mono.  Here are the final "Specs":

-   Alan Tani SST Gear Sleeve
-   Greased Carbontex (2 in the gear and 1 under the gear – OH YEAH!)
-   Penn Jigmaster Handle
-   Gear Ratio: 3:1
-   Retrieve per Turn: 18"
-   Max Drag with Freespool: 12# (I was afraid to pull at that point)
-   Line Capacity: 175 yards of 30# Big Game mono

As I was finishing writing this post, I decided to do a quick Google search for "Lawrence No. 202 reel", and I found the following Q&A.  Strange that the person with the question is named Jeff. Alan pegged the era of the reel perfectly!

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Fishing/lawrence reels
Expert: Robert Vermillion - 6/27/2011
Question
Hello Robert, I discover two Lawrence bait casters reels in my
attic with rods ( no 202 ) any comments on these items and when were they manufactured - Thanks – Jeff
Answer
Jeff

These are 1950s vintage reels out of New York, most common ones have black plastic end plates that kind of look like waffles, but some were all chromed brass. They were pretty low cost reels...so they don't generate much collector interest.

Bob
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After today's experience, I believe that Alan, Tim, Joey, and I have reached some level of "The State of B. Chun".  To fulfill our quest for a higher level of "B. Chun-ness", we will need to complete the needed repairs to the B. Chun Rod, and then, catch a fish on it.  Then, and only then, shall we be able to achieve "The State of B. Chun".

Here are a few pictures of the B. Chun Reel (I hope they show up).  Here is a link to the YouTube video https://youtu.be/9nibzLSjhdI.

Strive to find your own "State of B. Chun".

[alantani]

Yup, these guys definitely have too much time on their hands! 

[Bryan Young]

I always wondered why that reel was sitting out without a tag or anything. I now know why...it's the center of a conversation piece to B. Chun.

[mike1010]

A tale well told.  Thanks.

[MarkT]

Nice, but this must've involved more than a single shot of Scotch!

[swill88]

An AT gear sleeve just happened to fit? I'ts a Penn knockoff? Twitchen.

[Hamachi]

Duuude! Far out, man. Groovy! As another blogger on here puts it, cool beans! You just can't make this stuff up!

[thorhammer]

That's some true AT spirit and having been in there with Alan and Joey I can fully believe it!! Nice job!!!

[foakes]

With all of the parts and pieces going into this old Lawrence reel that likely belonged at some point to Mr. Chun -- perhaps we should consider naming this joint project...

"The Chun King"...

It certainly is a clever mix-mash of seemingly unrelated parts.

Best,

Fred

[Jim Fujitani]

I have a couple of Lawrence reels.  It started when I "inherited" a Lawrence Wavecrest from my father about 20-30 years ago.  I picked up a couple more Lawrence reels on e-bay 10-15 years ago.  They felt a bit better in the hand than a comparable Penn.  I used them on the bay for halibut back in the 90's.

They were relegated to a box somewhere in my garage when I started using ambassadeurs and Penn 310-320gti reels in the bay.

I may have to dig them out since this sounds like a good thread to follow.

Jim 

[Cortez_Conversions]

Nice!

[Alto Mare]

Good job on B.Chun guys. You almost upgraded it correctly, but still close enough .

[stoked4fishin]

I forgot to note that we get a smooth 10 seconds of freespool on The B. Chun Reel!

[Ron Jones]

It needs a 49 star. Looks really cool. I say it should be fished on the 6th.
Ron

[redsetta]

I say it should be fished on the 6th.

Now there's a plan!