Penn 16/0 3 piece spool

[Alto Mare]

Check out the size of the oil port on your red knob above. I believe they stopped making those during the mid 50's.

[UKChris]

I know. I was just making sure he knew the red handle was the three piece. Usually the handle has been changed out at some point anyway. This one hasn't. Red handle indicates it was made in the fifty's.

I knew that 

But, I had assumed the handle colour was somewhat random on all Penn multiplier reels as I remembr seeing all the red, amber and green handles when I was younger and drooled at the big Senators in the shop window during the '60s and later. Specifically, it was the two tackle shops in Looe, Cornwall, that organised sharking trips. They had displays of 4/0 to 16/0 Senators that made me fall in love  .

Only recently (well, relatively speaking) have handles all been black; and then I bought some older Senators (a 6/0 and a 9/0) with white handles. Only then did I notice that white handles have different shapes, slightly, and I wonder how old they might be. The 9/0 has ball-bearings so isn't the earliest model and the 6/0 looks to be a standard black plate model.

As has bene said before, this place is a source of great information!

[Alto Mare]

You're showing your age Chris
I also fell in love with them and still love them, at times more that my wife .
When they talk back to you its always exciting....not the wife, the reels

[Shark Hunter]

You are scaring me Sal!

[Alto Mare]

Look who's talking

What's the matter, don't you like when the reel talks back to you ? That clicker sound is the best sound of all.

[Shark Hunter]

Ok, you got me. Me and my reels talk to each other too.
Especially after a couple shots of Bourbon! 

[broadway]

Rauma,
    In my opinion, the reason no one has made a "serious" compilation is because there was very little continuity.  What I mean is, when the workers had left over parts from year to year they wouldn't shelf them or sell at clearance prices... instead they would use them in whatever they could put them in.  The other reason would be that when Penn's workers had spare time they were allowed to work on their own projects.  That is how I have "Big Red." At first I was thinking my red plated 9/0 was a prototype, but I now believe a worker did that and not Penn as a company.  The only way Penn made that was if they were thinking of introducing a 9/0 high speed   I've heard stories of the woman who was in charge of picking out the reel's handle color and by the looks of things she did her own thing.
Unfortunately, now a days there are very few old Penn reels that haven't been messed with and turned into "franken-reels" to either replace missing/ broken parts or deceive potential buyers, so it's getting harder to find all original.
Shark Hunter,
    You're not gonna want to use that spool for sharking, as the others have said. That mono will "python" your spool until Pa-Pow! I think a 14/0 with aluminum spool would work best for your application, no?
Best of luck,
Dom

[Shark Hunter]

I have two 14's already spooled with 130lb mono. However, they are the chrome over brass spools. I think I'm good with those. Chime in Makule. I know you fish the 14 for Sharks. I never really thought about the spool on those. Do you use the Brass ones, or aluminum?

[UKChris]

I've been working out how to get that lovely 9/0 clicker sound on to my phone as a ring tone 

Though the disappointment when I realise it is not a strike but only someone trying to sell me insurance or double-glazing from a call centre in who-knows-where might be too much to bear. 

Let them speak to me - the reels I mean.
I just love the sound of my newly cleaned Int.30 when I turn the handle - such a lovely purr