Penn Senators : from the beginning

Started by Superhook, December 21, 2014, 07:32:41 AM

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Superhook


1936 Penn markets their First Senator reel , a #115 ( 9/0) .


The GOOD ............ Perfect 1936 first year 9/0 Senator and box .  8) ( Ted )



The BAD ............a trio of 9/0's . left- right . 1938 with door knob handle 36/37 on top of box and 1939 with torpedo handle .  ;D (Mike)



and the UGLY........... 1936 reel and box with tape and stains.  :'( ((Ray)



the 1936 Catalog has the 9/0 Senator on the front.



A photo of a Penn employee working on a large Penn Senator . 14/0 -16/0 handle on the bench top and the counterweighted door knob 9/0 -12/0 handle in holder on top of bench would date 1938-9.


Penn Chronology

OMG,,, is that a human being working on that reel???? This picture must be from the Middle Ages!!

Superhook








1937 12/0 with correct handle and one set of harness lugs . No rod to reel lugs. Hard to find reel and rare handle .

When looking for the old Senators take note of the position of the free spool lever and crank outlet relating to a vertical centre line compared to the later models. Early cranks are forward and free spool levers are backward of centre line.


Alto Mare

This one is one of my favorite picture of all.
I posted it here about two years and it made photo of the month...no surprise there. ;)

I wish it was me sitting there. ;D
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.

Superhook

Sal,

It would be very pleasant to have a set up like that and all new parts,  Just noticed the huge ball peen hammer in the foreground. That must be to put an end to any argument that might start over a reject part.????

Ray

Superhook


This 12/0 reel came in the Lighthouse Box . It has been used but very little. Probably been on the rod and at sea as it has only the slightest signs of saltwater use except for the rod bracket bolts. I took it apart for its first time and there was a pencil number still on the brass. It is a 1937 made reel with a 1939 torpedo handle. It only has one set of lugs for a harness and the gears for 1937 were brass , after that they were steel. Old Cuttyhunk linen line was very clean and is still on and the reel is as found.

Superhook

Other than the first box for the 9/0 in 36-37 all Senators of the first generation were sold in the Lighthouse boxes. Here is the set 4,6,9,10,12,14 & 16/0. If the price varied in the future years Penn stuck a printed sticker over the original printed label on the box .  ( The 1,2 & 3/0 came later in the colourful fisherman labelled black boxes)


Rothmar2

Keep these historical posts coming. Fantastic to have you guys who know the Penn story inside out, sharing with us all. Have been looking at the ORCA site a lot lately as well, and marvel at the old reels. No CNC machining. All hand driven machines. I realise Penn were probably one of the first to get into mass production, but these are still a beautiful reminder of where our past-time has originated, and progressed from.
Fantastic reads!

Superhook


Photos of a 1940 14/0 . The early 14/0's are one of the hardest to find. The 16/0 would be the only Senator harder to find.



Alto Mare

Quote from: Superhook on December 21, 2014, 10:08:39 AM
Sal,

It would be very pleasant to have a set up like that and all new parts,  Just noticed the huge ball peen hammer in the foreground. That must be to put an end to any argument that might start over a reject part.????

Ray
;D ;D...

I'm wondering if that setup with that large black coffee grind handle was used to install knobs on the handle :-\...it would make sense.
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.

Penn Chronology

QuoteI'm wondering if that setup with that large black coffee grind handle was used to install knobs on the handle Undecided...it would make sense

Yes, Sal, I mean I was not there, but I believe that is for squeezing the rivet tail onto the handle knob shaft. With the right size rivet die, you could do it repeatedly without harming the wood knob. That particular tool goes back to the 1930's even though the picture is taken in the 1950's.

Maxed Out

#11
   Ha ha ha, Gotta love a clint eastwood fan from down unda. Got a good laugh, and in my opinion, they are all things of beauty and loaded with historical significance.



Very cool stuff, thanks for sharing Ray. Sal has a pic of my wood handled mid 40's 9/0, other than that I'm just a spectator here. Sorry for drooling on your reels Ray, but when I see old senators like yours, my jaw drops and the drool starts flowing. I'm sure Michael has a few that are jaw droppers also.

Thanks again for sharing part of your collection Ray. The phrase "too much of a good thing" doesn't apply to penn reels, so keep them coming please.
We Must Never Forget Our Veterans....God Bless Them All !!

Penn Chronology

#12
As far as Senators go, I am a Cave Man except for one 16/O presentation reel which I will post later in this thread. All my big Senators are pre-war, first generation reels. The fast easy way to tell the difference is looking straight on at the head plates.


                    The Senator 6/O on the left is a post 1948, second generation reel. The reel on the right was made previous to 1948. The dates I am quoting are according to changes made in the catalog illustrations, which may be slightly off. I feel the true separation between first and second generation Senators is WW II. The post war catalogs do not illustrate second gen Senators until 1949, but I feel the catalogs were slow to reflect what was available in the market place. It is that same old story, Penn never wasted anything back in those days, so all their products basically slowly evolved from one change to another, rather than just changing over in the exact year the catalogs says the changes exist (which makes it difficult when you are trying to specifically document a change).
                    For many years, the difference between first and second gen Senators has gone unnoticed. Collectors either ignored the difference or simply missed it. To me it was always a major difference but how much it affected the true scarcity of a particular model had to be proved, so six or seven years ago, myself and a few other collectors challenged ourselves to collect a complete set of First Generation Senators. To this day, only one of us (not Me or Ray) has completed the set from 4/O to 16/O.
                    Here is my set of First Gen Senators;

                    You will notice the 16/O is not there. My set of first gen Senators goes from 4/O to 14/O. What was really interesting was that no one had even seen one, except in the catalogs. We were beginning to think that no first gen 16/O existed until a find this year in Florida by a collector that lives in Oregon.
Here is the only First Generation build style 16/O that is known to have survived:


                    As for a used, 75 year old Big Game reel, it is not in bad shape... :o

Superhook





1939 10/0 with semi-transparent Catlin torpedo knob. Torpedo handles were used from 1939.

Superhook