Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Wow. So many awesome reels. I have some to share. I'll get pictures in a bit. Didn't think much of what I have. But after scrolling through this post.  I do have a bunch to share!!

Great thread!

Here are some pre 704 end of 700 greenies. Not overly rare. But not common. The blue one I made from parts I got from someone who acquired a bunch of parts from Penn. It's some sort of prototype. It's a true factory paint reel. Inside is exactly like any stock reel. Not someone's custom. I put on the silver spool since it matched kind of and I had from one of my own customs. I had a second rotor and body. But stupidly sold years back.

Here are some pretty rare early Luxor ultralights. All pre A series. No letter marking. One bache brown half bail. One half bail no anti reverse. And some with the old spool and handles. One with wood knob. 

Last are some Luxors. Very early pre A series. With the early line roller and full bail. A few other pre A. A few A series that were black. Hard to find in great shape. These took lots of love and cleaning. A true manual pick up B series. Rotor has no hole or bail stopper. Same for the true manual pick up crack. The pum models are hard to come by. B and C full bail and crack are most common. Also a silver spool b mixed in.

That Harrington Bantam is a cool and interesting reel! The braces on stem to  the foot, especially the one on the back side, look like they could play havoc to the fingers. 

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

Quote from: Midway Tommy on October 15, 2026, 05:46:43 PMThat Harrington Bantam is a cool and interesting reel! The braces on stem to  the foot, especially the one on the back side, look like they could play havoc to the fingers. 

I just love the visual mechanics of that reel, and I agree, that stem bracing is not the best idea.

I first saw one when a TFF (Traditional Fishermans Forum) aquaintance of mine posted some photos of his collection of rare Harrington reels, where he had opened up his Bantam to show the crazy internals, and upon seeing it, I just had to have one.

Talking of crazy things, my daughter overheard me talking about that rare collection of reels to her mother, and unknown to me, she kept a lookout for some on ebay.

One Christmas I opened a present from her, to find three rare Harrington reels inside, (a Korka, a Magnet and a Magda).
As I studied each one with glee (and amazement that she found them!), I noticed some similarities with the ones posted on the TFF forum, and quickly worked out that they were the very same ones, so I contacted the previous owner on the forum to ask if he still had the Bantam, but alas he had sold it to someone else a few weeks before.

About a year later, to my amazement, I saw the one pictured here in a job lot of old reels and snapped it up.
I had also found an incomplete, internally damaged one, which I kept for spares.

As I said earlier, they are pretty crude by , say,  Mitchell standards, but they are still very cool.

That first Bantam I saw, and the two subsiquent reels I got off ebay are the only ones I have ever seen in all my years  of reel collecting, so I'm guessing they didn't make many of them?

There is no manufacturers name on the Bantam, but it oozes Harrington origins (think of the Harrigton 'Omnia' reel).
Rather annoyingly, if I do an ebay search for this reel, I get a ton of Shimano Bantam baitcasters come up, but it's to be expected I guess.

I also found out that my Harrington collector pal on the now sadly defunct TFF, also collected Mepps reels (as I do), and we were at the same school together.....all in all some crazy coincidences!

Sorry for the long post.

Cheers! (as we say here in the UK)