Reel Repair by Alan Tani

I recently bought some old reels with line on the spools and I'm not sure if it is linen or newer braid.  How can I tell the difference between linen and braid?  If I want to display a reel with linen line on the spool how would I clean the line?

George

George,
   I'm not sure how to tell you about the difference between linen and the newer stuff... I just kinda go by stiffness, look, coating or no coating on line, and age of the reel- (which isn't always the best way). 
I can tell you the best/ only way I would put line back on is a long bath with diluted Salt-Away, rinse thoroughly with warm water, and put back on while the line is still a little damp otherwise it takes the shape of whatever bottle/container you use to dry the line and makes spooling a bit more difficult.
I like the look of the line back on a vintage reel if it's linen as well. 
Have fun,
Dom

Pre-war, before synthetic material was invented, all fishing line was made of natural fiber.  The popular options were linen, silk, and long staple cotton.  The quickest way to differentiate natural fiber from synthetic fiber is to burn the end.  Natural fibers burn clean and the ash falls away.  When burned, synthetic fibers stink and melt into a glob.

The fibers could be turned into fishing line by either braiding or twisting.  Braiding made it look like the braid we know today.  Twisting made it look like miniature rope or seine twine.

Silk was almost always braided.  Linen and cotton was almost always twisted.  This is due to inherent differences in the length and thickness of the various fibers.  There was also differences in how the line was laid.  "Hard laid" means the fibers were braided or twisted together very tightly.  Soft laid means they were not so tight.  Soft laid rope or string is preferred for some applications but hard laid is better for fishing line.

Silk was almost always died.  Black and dark green were popular colors but there were many others.  Cotton and linen was either died or left the natural color.  

An advancement was when they learned to "waterproof" natural fiber fishing line.  Waterproofing made the line behave more consistently and it did not get as heavy when wet. I'm still researching this and am not sure if the waterproofing was natural resins and oils, or waxes, or something else.  I do know that the waterproofing did not work very well and wore off quickly.  

The most expensive fishing lines were waterproofed hard laid braided silk.  The least expensive were soft laid twisted cotton.  The most popular was twisted linen.  Hard laid twisted linen is called Cuttyhunk.  Cuttyhunk is not a brand name, it is a process.

Line size was originally based on thread count.  Linen and cotton had sort of a standard thread size.  Silk had much finer thread and when silk casting lines came out the pound test designations started to appear.  

For Cuttyhunk, two to many threads were twisted into a "ply" and three plys were twisted into the finished line.  Two and four ply line was available, but three ply was the most common.  If each ply had two treads and the finished line had three plys then there were a total of six threads.  Sometimes it was called six thread line and sometimes just number six line.  If each ply had three threads, then there were nine threads total.  If four threads in a ply then there were twelve total.  So, the line sizes increased in increments of three.

If the thread and ply thing does not make sense at first then read or watch video about rope making.  Twisted or Cuttyhunk fishing line is made the same way as rope and look like miniature rope.

As a side note, modern nylon seine twine of a certain diameter is designated by a size number that corresponds to the diameter of natural fiber twine of that thread count.

The strength of the natural fiber fishing line depended on the strength of the threads.  The strength of the threads depended on the length of the individual fibers making up the thread and the plant it was derived from.  The flax plant from Ireland made very long fibers that were turned into high quality linen thread with a breaking strength of about three pounds.  Long staple cotton from the Carolinas made fibers that were longer than regular cotton but shorter than flax fiers.  Long staple cotton thread had a breaking strength of about two pounds.

So, a nine thread Cuttyhunk line had a breaking strength of about 27 pounds (9 thread x 3 lb).  A 36 thread Cuttyhunk line had a breaking strength approaching 108 pounds although the conversion from thread count to breaking strength became less reliable as line size increased.

As a side note, a 36 thread rod is so named because it has a stiffness and backbone that is appropriate for using with a 36 thread Cuttyhunk line.  Rod blanks were sold by thread count up into the 1970's, well after they stopped sizing the line itself by thread count.

Finally, be careful when you see the word "linen".  Lined is supposed to be thread and fabric made from the flax plant.  After synthetic fibers were invented marketing people came up with "synthetic linen" which is supposed to wick moisture like natural linen.  The real thing will be called flax linen or Irish linen.

And finally, finally, if anyone has some vintage line they want to sell then please let me know.  I'm obsessed and have actually bought old reels just to get the line from them.  I haven't had to make my own line yet, but that may be coming.
-steve

Great information thanks for posting that.

One thing to remember, not all "braid" is created equal. You are more apt to run across Dacron line than linen, and Dacron isn't the same as, nor as desirable a the "newer" Spectra. While Dacron has it's uses, it's larger in diameter than Spectra and will deteriorate in sunlight where Spectra won't. Dacron will also retain salt and water and can be prone to rot and mildew.

Thank you all for the useful info. 

George

Steve, sounds like you swallowed the book on old fishing line. Thanks for that detailed summarization.
Dom

A side note, cleaning and drying were order of the day. That was done because of rotting. I just got rid of my line dryer about a year ago.

You can tell the difference between natural line (cotton, linen ) and synthetic line (spectra, nylon, dacron) synthetic when you put a match to it wiil have a bead where the line burnt and natural line will not bead but have an ash as residue.

Joel8080

I want to put together a Depression Era baitcasting outfit to fish with.  Getting the reel is easy.
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=18895.0

The Montgomery Ward catalogs indicate that baitcasting rods of the time were split bamboo, whole bamboo or steel.  These are more difficult to find but possible.  Most split bamboo rods were stored in conditions that were either too dry making them brittle, or too wet making them rotten.

Finding period appropriate fishing line that is still usable is really hard.  It's readily available at auction for not much money but most of it has been attacked by microbes and has no strength left.  I finally found one piece of six thread Cuttyhunk that is not rotten, but it is only 25 yards long.  At least 30 yards are needed to cast and 80 yards to fill the spool.

-steve

Quote from: oc1 on August 15, 2016, 08:09:50 PM
Finding period appropriate fishing line that is still usable is really hard.

Yep...all the linen line I have on display reels breaks very easy. I put together a few vintage combos to fish but had to use dacron on them. Only the mono leaders show in the pic...dacron is jet black. The bottom rod is a steel True Temper.

On my some of my old reels I removed the line by winding it on a Penn 9/0 for storage.  It's pretty much full now, but I'll break out the matches to determine what is natural fiber.  Then I'll clean it and display on some of my vintage reels.

Thank You,
George   

Wow, George .... a 9/0 full of potential treasure.

Mo, you have nice stuff.  Here's my steel rod.  I think my late father-in-law picked it up at the local swap meet decades ago.  The kids used it for a make-believe fencing sword, then pulled off the tip top to make a frog gig.  The butt corroded away while my wife was using it for a tomato stake.  Now it's going to be a fishing rod again.



But, I don't think this is the same sort of steel rod they had in the 1930's.  I have never held one, but in the pictures and catalogs the steel blank is always 1/2 inch square stock where it attaches to the handle and tapers from there.  They are said to be very heavy too and suffer from corrosion problems.  

I'm guessing my steel rod is from the late 1940's or possibly the early 1950's.  To look at and waggle it you would think it was an automobile antenna with a handle and guides.  It is a lot of fun to cast though.

From the turn of the century through at least the 1930's they made rods from a section of whole cane and a turned hardwood handle.  I don't have a lathe and just put a deckhand handle on a 5'6" cane pole.  The cord is stabilized with home made rock rosin varnish.  


Since making do with what you have and not spending any money was common and honorable during the Great Depression, I'm going to pretend that the cane rod is period appropriate.

The reel has 18# braided nylon squidding line on it right now while I look for more period appropriate line.  

Here is the reel on a 9' cane rod (for fishing from a canoe) with a top shot of genuine six thread Cuttyhunk.  It's wet which darkens the color.

-steve

Quote from: George4741 on August 16, 2016, 05:13:08 AM
On my some of my old reels I removed the line by winding it on a Penn 9/0 for storage.  It's pretty much full now, but I'll break out the matches to determine what is natural fiber.  Then I'll clean it and display on some of my vintage reels.  

That's too cool George! I store "period correct" line on a few big reels too...but a 9/0 would be perfect!

Quote from: oc1 on August 16, 2016, 10:02:01 AM
Here's my steel rod.  I think my late father-in-law picked it up at the local swap meet decades ago.  The kids used it for a make-believe fencing sword, then pulled off the tip top to make a frog gig.  The butt corroded away while my wife was using it for a tomato stake.  Now it's going to be a fishing rod again.

Mine looked much like yours Steve when I started on it. A mouse had chewed a hole in the cork...there's a  wood putty patch on it that you can't see in the pic. I love the old glass agate guides on these steel rods...does yours have them?

Steve, I like the way you repaired those rod handles.  I will have to do that someday, rather than throwing them away.

I'm not lucky enough to have a 9/0 full of potential treasure.  The braid that tops off the spool is definitely newer synthetic braid.  I'll report back with what I find under there.