Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Conventional and Bait Casting Reel Rebuild Tutorials and Questions => Penn - Vintage => Topic started by: Maxed Out on November 22, 2024, 11:57:47 PM

Title: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Maxed Out on November 22, 2024, 11:57:47 PM
 How can a $10 Penn 85 be worth $1500 ?

 It's easy. Just find one like this
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Brewcrafter on November 23, 2024, 12:49:18 AM
That is beautiful Ted!  Thanks for sharing! - john
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Dominick on November 23, 2024, 01:01:36 AM
Nice Ted, really $1500?  Dominick
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Maxed Out on November 23, 2024, 01:20:58 AM
Quote from: Dominick on November 23, 2024, 01:01:36 AMNice Ted, really $1500?  Dominick

...never hurt to dream big !!
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Eddietorial on November 23, 2024, 01:25:02 PM
Did Penn Make that Reel with that ODD Colored Spool ?
I have  seen a few of the Marbled Side Plates but not an odd color Spool like that . Is it Painted or REALLY that Color .
If it is Real and came that way it may well bring a Kings Ransom .
Duck Tape a small piece of Fruit to it and Get MILLIONS .
Banana Art (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/21/crypto-investor-justin-sun-banana-comedian-sotheby-auction.html&ved=2ahUKEwiy3ZjNxvKJAxXcLtAFHUshKSkQvOMEKAB6BAgQEAE&usg=AOvVaw0Mnt_J-Ca-iEj5rnt2KHpm)
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Midway Tommy on November 23, 2024, 03:27:24 PM
Quote from: Maxed Out on November 22, 2024, 11:57:47 PMHow can a $10 Penn 85 be worth $1500 ?

 It's easy. Just find one like this

Any idea who crafted those side plates & when?
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: JasonGotaProblem on November 23, 2024, 03:32:00 PM
That's from the factory I believe.

Penn factory workers sometimes scooped up chips and dumped them back into the melter for their lower-end reels. These mottled plates aren't terribly uncommon. I have a black and maroon 85. But coming out looking like that is a lot less common.

Now if this used to be in the collection of someone named Martha, that adds some serious digits to the end of a dollar value.
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Vintage Offshore Tackle on November 23, 2024, 04:06:32 PM
Wow Ted, that's one of the most vivid examples that I have ever seen, and that spool is super rare too.  Great find!
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Swami805 on November 23, 2024, 07:52:23 PM
That one really does pop. Nice one Ted!!
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Maxed Out on November 23, 2024, 08:28:55 PM
Quote from: Eddietorial on November 23, 2024, 01:25:02 PMDid Penn Make that Reel with that ODD Colored Spool ?
I have  seen a few of the Marbled Side Plates but not an odd color Spool like that . Is it Painted or REALLY that Color .
If it is Real and came that way it may well bring a Kings Ransom .
Duck Tape a small piece of Fruit to it and Get MILLIONS .
Banana Art (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/21/crypto-investor-justin-sun-banana-comedian-sotheby-auction.html&ved=2ahUKEwiy3ZjNxvKJAxXcLtAFHUshKSkQvOMEKAB6BAgQEAE&usg=AOvVaw0Mnt_J-Ca-iEj5rnt2KHpm)

Nothing fake about this reel. It is 100% made at the Penn reel facility. Penn motto was to not waste anything useable, including sweeping up scraps to mold into sideplates, as Jason mentioned.

 This particular reel has much more vivid coloring than any that I've seen in over 2 decades of pursuing factory anomalies.

Here's a couple more pics. Brighter lighting or direct sunlight makes the colors much more vivid. The textured sideplates makes the center portion of the sideplates look foggy.
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: pjstevko on November 23, 2024, 10:09:02 PM
Well if that reel is worth anything over $75 I'll buy anyone I can find cheap and resell it
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Brewcrafter on November 24, 2024, 12:12:13 AM
That.... is a stellar reel. - john
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: broadway on November 24, 2024, 02:05:01 AM
PJ- There's a pretty good chance you won't find one "like this."  If you do, I'm your guy!
I've got a couple end of the day/week/month/year/reels as well, and they are special in my collection.
They're every bit of factory and every bit of expensive & sought after.
This is one of the most colorful of these types of reels and no nicks and dents in the plates, well, good luck finding another.
Fine example, Ted.
Best,
Dom
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: 54bullseye on November 24, 2024, 09:28:14 AM
she sure is perrrty !! good find Ted !!
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Crow on November 24, 2024, 05:52:41 PM
Ya' did good, on that one, Ted!!
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: ReelFishingProblems on November 25, 2024, 12:25:55 AM
I keep thinking about the reels those scraps came from that got swept off the floor. Can we name them all?
Monofil 26
Rose 109?
Brown 85
What does the cream color come from?

It's a beautiful reel
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: Maxed Out on November 25, 2024, 01:01:03 AM
 Hard to say Jason, but it may be scraps from sideplates, or knobs, or both. Up thru early 50's, knobs were all turned on a lathe, by a woman affectionately referred to as the handle lady.
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: jurelometer on November 25, 2024, 05:18:16 AM
Bakelite is a thermoset plastic, so reuse of the final product is not possible.  It won't remelt, it will just burn. 

Bakelite is made by mixing formaldehyde with a couple other liquid chemicals and then adding heat. Eventually, it will boil up into a hard foam, but if you  turn off the heat prematurely, you end up with a brittle plastic that is usually ground into a powder.

At this point, the dyes and asbestos or wood fillers are added. And at this point(pre-polymerization) it can still be remelted into a nice gooey substance good for final molding. The mold is pressurized for the final heating, which  suppresses the foaming- and presto, you have a Bakelite part.

I guess that the well known blending effects used in Bakelite jewelry like faux marbling and tortoiseshell must be happening during this remelt-injection step.  I think that it is plausible that the Penn factory workers would have a bit of fun with  this technique  with the materials at hand. And you have to have a plan and some skill to get a nice even distribution without too much blending of colors.

Better/cheaper parts are made nowadays with fully automated injection molding, but this little slice of artistic expression from folk working the factory floor is no longer an option.

I think that this is what makes pieces like this valuable, and not just in the monetary sense. I can totally picture these factory folk gathering around the to see how the parts looked as they popped out of the mold. They must have been very pleased with this reel.

-J
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: oc1 on November 25, 2024, 05:36:01 AM
Ocean City also made colored Bakelite side plates but they didn't make colored knobs and they didn't do the color swirl thing.

Who knows.  If Penn had made more of them and given them more exposure, they might have caught on.  But, then again, it was a different time with different fashion tastes. Penn's psychedelic patterns were a few decades ahead of their time.
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: oldmanjoe on November 25, 2024, 01:35:13 PM
 ;D   And all this started , because the new guy swept the floor and cross contaminated some material !!!
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: jurelometer on November 25, 2024, 05:19:52 PM
BTW, I would be surprised if the knobs are Bakelite. Cured Bakelite has a dark reddish cast that prevented from being dyed in bright colors, especially light colors. This is why Penn sideplates are various flavors of not-too vivid greens, browns, burgundies, blacks.  There are a couple Bakelite-like plastics that are more clear and be dyed to brighter colors. Collectors often refer to these as Bakelite, but it is not accurate. I never read up on these and have no idea how similar the manufacturing process is.

I also have no idea what the knobs are made out of, but they look way too bright to be true Bakelite.

-J
Title: Re: $10 reel or $1500 reel
Post by: oc1 on November 25, 2024, 07:15:47 PM
Quote from: jurelometer on November 25, 2024, 05:19:52 PMI also have no idea what the knobs are made out of, but they look way too bright to be true Bakelite.

Probably Catalim which was a phenolic resin developed after the Bakelite patent expired.  It does not contain the powdered wood filler so it can be translucent for things like reel knobs and jewelry.