Hey, all!
You know I love my French spin reels!!
I just picked up this rare French beauty!
A 1948 Dep Savoy
serial no. 7608
Around the size of a Hardy Altex no.2 and actually, looks like it may be very similar in construction to an Altex.
We'll see...
She's definitely seen a full life.
Lots of paint loss, but crisp script on side cover.
Alloy spool stamped "made in France"
Unique crank arm on her.
Much like one on Italian made Eagle Claw reels.
Knob looks very Doperr 'ish.
Oil ports with knurled covers on both worm gear and crank drive body sleeve.
She's sluggish with old grease, I assume, but a/r, drag, and bail arm actuation, all working.
This old girl getting a full stripdown and restore.
I'm going to leave her with all the battle scars, just so I don't have to baby her, when using.
Stay tuned!!
looking forward to seeing the innards.
Quote from: jtwill98 on December 11, 2025, 02:19:32 AMlooking forward to seeing the innards.
Got her all stripped tonight.
Going to update the thread,tomorrow!
Of course, this old girl was very different than her other French sisters!
Stay tuned!
These French reels that you keep showing have really challenged my ideas of spinner innards. For a while I really thought there were only about 3-4 different basic mechanisms for a spinning reel. Turns out there's a lot more variety out there.
Lot of different varieties/names of those Sap/Dep reels out there to catch one's eye. A few of their names are Sap, Dep, Savoy & Stesco for the US market, and others offered in Europe were Ferax, Ceka, Rochebut, Lutece & Lutetia, just to name a few. They're very similar high quality reels, with some being a little difficult to come by.
Got the Savoy all stripped down!
Wasn't to awfully bad. Just went at it slowly and took many disassembly pictures for later rebuild.
I couldn't separate the bail arm cam from the trip mechanism shaft, nor remove the line roller.
Roller was seized, so soaking in oil and see if that frees it up.
The cam bracket,I just left well enough alone. I'm not gonna tempt fate and break something. It appears to thread onto trip shaft, but not budging, so the entire shaft assembly stays put and gets cleaned in the flier.
Unique bail arm trip, in that the bail arm pawl nests into a groove cut in the the shaft mechanism, in order to hold bail arm open, and when crank arm is retrieved, the shaft rotates and allows the pawl to fall free from the groove closing the bail.
Dust cover contains the bridged block that activates the shaft rotation to close the arm.
When the flier rotates, the shaft "rolls" along the arch of the bridge, as it makes contact,thus rotating the shaft and, in turn, the pawl holding groove
rotates allowing the pawl arm to fall free of it. Closing bail arm.
This reel also has a brass sliding block just like a Hardy Altex.
Unique multi piece drag set up in spool, as well.
It consists of a brass bushing sleeved into an outer tube and all contained inside the drag capstan.
When the capstan is turned, the brass bushing moves, either up or down, applying or decreasing pressure on felt washer attached, thus putting pressure on spool.
I could not remove the anti reverse selector switch from body shell, either.
It looks to be just like the CarGem Mignon set up, consisting of a spring loaded ball bearing rocker switch.
The finger stub is threaded and then pin riveted to the assembly, so there is no way to remove it from body.
It will just be cleaned assembled.
The worm gear drive has only one ball bearing race and they are pressed in, so no loose handset bearings on this reel.
This reel has English, German, and Italian influences throughout.
Overengineered, as I like em, too!
All parts getting a cleaning and polishing before reassembly!
I'll keep you posted!!
Peace!
More pictures
So much metal, it's beautiful!
Nice pictures and way to start the follow up post with a shocking first picture with so many parts laid out.
Looking at the pictures, it sure looked like it was screaming for a service. It will feel better after you complete the cleaning and assembly.
You're a full fledged "French Reel Doctor" and you work is top-notch.
Whew that's a lot of pieces parts! Looking forward to seeing that jewel all back together, clean and shiny.
Update on the Dep Savoy stripdown.
Got all the parts fully cleaned of nasty old grease and ready for polishing before reassembly.
Look at that original stamped fiber side cover gasket!! Unbroken after 80 years!
Stay tuned!
BTW
"where's this screw go?!"
Looks like you're having fun. 8)
Finished up the Dep Savoy, today!
Reassembly went great with everything working smoothly!
Everything lubricated with faucet valve grease and light machine oil, throughout.
Anti reverse works as it should with reel function smooth in both directions.
Nice subtle a/r click on this one.
Front spool drag all good.
This is the only reel I've had to build the drag capstan on!
The French love to over design. Lol
Nice quiet bail arm actuation with the unique bail arm set up.
3:1 ratio on this one.
Spooling it with 6lb. test and taking her out for a trial run on some feisty crappie.
Funny thing, this reel had a bunch of sand throughout, before stripdown, and even after a very thorough cleaning, the threaded body screw holes still had some grit bits, you could feel when tightening screws down.
I got her from France, so I'd like to think, she still has a bit of home in her.
Peace!!
Final pictures