Some of my brother's old Spinner collection. 1) Saltwater size Zebco Spinator 870: weighs alot!
2) Point Ace 400-Japanese: gee, I wonder where they got the idea
for that color scheme?
More: 3) Astra Mastereel from Ariex: very nice reel. Note the drag(brake)grease. Had the consistancecy of a
Wax a some kind.
More: 4) a Korean Fenwick Blackhawk XL VI, probably pretty cheap, overall
5) a Japanese Ryobi SX2N The Silver Cloud: does more words n' digits in the name make it somethin
Special?
6) Diawa GS-3: seems like a nice reel, pretty heavy.
Here's 2 that I worked on today: 1) a very nice Shakespeare 2062 NL, model EG. This puppy's gotta worm-drive gear system, the 6"D" drag( 3 shiny stainless steel lookin washers, 3 leather drag disks on top & a single leather one on the bottom). The handle is probably aluminium, a bit weak lookin, but it's got screw-in knob for ease of cleaning and lube. There's lube ports for the pinion bearing and the main gear shaft. Only non-metal parts I see are the drag knob, handle knob and the brake washers. Made in the USA.
2) the best spincaster I've seen to date: A Abumatic 120. made in Sweden and reminiscent of the construction quality you see in the early Cardinal series. It's gotta drag system where as you crank it, it automatically adjusts to the pressure put on the handle! Then if you wanna scale back on the drag, you move the handle backwards. The handle moves backwards from full drag, aprox. 1/3 of a revolution before the abu-style dog kicks in. Can't make it any more convenient than that!
I's surprised that I was able to reassemble it in one try. Very intricate for a spincaster.
Gfish
Improve on the Abumatic 120? Of course. 1) oscillating spool system. There is however, an external lever for quick spool release.
2) screw attached handle knob, insteada a rivet.
Yep, I had one of the Fenwick Blackhawks, smaller than the one you posted, really nothing special but it lasted for at least 25 years.
Love those Shakespeare maroon series, I know an older fellow who still uses his 2062 and it's probably nearly 50 years old.
That's a beautiful 2062--one of the nicer ones I've seen. The early models had the chrome handle & metal spool that many prefer over the later models.
ABU had quite a history in the spincaster field. I think there were some other ABU reels that "corrected" some of the "defects" you mention. They made some underspin models (closed face spinning reels that had a long foot and hung under the rod) that had neither a bail nor a pushbutton, although I don't recall if they had an oscillating spool or not.
Frank
Ryobi made a lot of spinners for Zebco just before and after the Cardinal separation. They made the XR & XB series' and a bunch of others.
That 2062 handle is anodized aluminum. They changed it to black anodized shortly thereafter and later went to the black one piece handle.
Zebco bought out Langley in '62 and manufactured most of the Langley models under the Zebco name for six years or so, until the Cardinal line took off.
Update time. This's my Browning, model # unknowen, the paint wore off. Got alotta use out of it after I bought it in 1990. A mostly graphite, rear drag, 5:1, made in Korea. I was immediately interested in it when I saw the rotor design. This would be one where I could leave off the anti-reverse and thumb the the underside a the rotor, while the fish was runnin, just like I used ta do with my MG 300. Couldn't trust the drag on that MG. a nice light-duty graphite workhorse, this Browning.