I am new into old spinners, bought a couple of odder designs for collecting but wanted to start fishing some. I found this one at an estate sale, appears to be 1970s and it's very smooth. So I figured a nice blend of some age, but shouldn't drive me crazy as my travel reel.
I haven't found any schematics or info on it. I am sure it's a copy of another reel that they just threw a Lew's sticker on. I was thinking Shimano but haven't seen a match. Anyone have any idea who made this for Lew's and what year it may be? I'd love schematics of the matching reel if anyone can point me in that direction as well. Thank you!!
I would bet Daiwa, but the ONLY reason I say that is the raised BALL BEARING lettering on the side, something Daiwa did a lot. I'd like to see the innards, see what kind of gearing it has. Fun reel either way.
A word of caution...one vintage reel turns into 100 really quick...just sayin'
I really wonder what the "powerful gearing system" is. My cynicism is trying to rear it's ugly head but I'm resisting.
"The Other Guy", I like that name. Daiwa would be my guess. Lew's seemed to specialize in baitcasters. The body has that early Daiwa spinner shape. Open'er up, interested to see what a "powerful gearing system" is, or let the other guy do it😏.
I think the powerful gearing refers to the ratio, probably something like 3:1. Ball bearing means 1, for the pinion I'm sure. The design of the body tells me it's not a worm gear reel. If it has bushings supporting any shafts it's at least a good quality reel. That and made in Japan says it also as a lot of initial Japanese designs were moved to other Asian countries to cut costs. Could be Roddy, Daiwa maybe Olympic. Fred will know.
It could have been made by Ryobi. Lew Childers had a falling out with his partner Shimano when Shimano was manufacturing the innovative Lew's Speed Spool baitcasting reel. Shimano (which had only manufactured bicycle parts before) came out with the Bantam reel using Lew's design ideas but without giving him credit. At that point, Lew formed a partnership with Ryobi to manufacture his reels. All this was going on between 1973 and Lew's death in a plane crash in 1977.
Interesting example. Most of the Lew's Shimano and Ryobi made examples you see have skirted spools and rear drags.
Lew's had a connection with Zebco for awhile in the early days. You might want to review some of the Zebco catalogs from the early through mid 1970s to see if you can find something that resembles that Spin #3. I think some of the "X" models may be similar. Zebco had a connection with Japanese manufacturers in the '70s and one of those was Ryobi. Zebco offered quite a few non skirted spool reels back then.