Just received a semi-gloss black JC Higgins 535-31380, which is a private label version of the Shakespeare SpinWonder 2065, black instead of the more common gloss charcoal gray metallic. I do have an early-production 2065 coming too, should be here in about a week, with a black finish. I'll be curious to see if it's textured or smooth, we shall see. Grubby and full of dried up grease that I'm digging out.
Good grief, I don't know what that combination of black and beige grease was made of, but it put up a fight. I spent most of my day cleaning that thing out, even had to take a toothpick to get the schmutz out of the gears all the way. Spins really well now and sounds great. I am starting to think that the cleaning process is what I enjoy most.
I have had some amazingly bad grease packs in reels I have acquired. Remember a Berkley 4201 spinner I got that looked brand new on the outside, but inside, the lube was virtually frozen, and, worse yet, someone had tried to crank the reel that way; tried really hard apparently, as the main gear was shattered. A Berkley spincast (300?) was in the same lot & suffered the same consequences.
Frank
Hate finding broken guts in pretty reels. Had a Heddon spinner of some sort in a buck o' reels I bought a couple of years ago, looked really nice, about half the teeth on the main gear were sheared-off.
A pair of super-cheap SpinWonders arrived today, a 2065 QL dated and a 2064 EK dated with an oddball crank handle and knob on the 2064.
The handle is from an Ofmer, maybe Eagle Claw.
Tommy, the tan crank knob made me think Eagle Claw but thanks for the information. It's not quite kosher but it works ok.