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Orvis Battenkill Made in England Reels

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Jim Lowe	Orvis Battenkill Made in England Reels		Lead	[-]
Posts: 547 05/28/2009 22:01	Tags : None I'm not sure if these are considered "classic" or not, so if there's a more appropriate place to post this, please let me know. I recently acquired an Orvis Battenkill Pawl and Spring reel without knowing they had been discontinued. I've been able to hunt down several replacement spools (5 in total) and find that they all fit differently. Some are smoother than others and after careful examination and measuring I've found that some of the cogs are slightly different sizes (~.001), the teeth are slightly different, some are pointy, others more flat and some cogs have a slight bevel to the teeth, others do not. My question is there away to identify which spools go with which reel? I know that Orivs had several manufactures, of which I think Hardy was one, and that all the reels were (supposed to be) made to the same specs. The reel and spools don't seem to have any real identifying features other than some of the spools have a black cap that say "orvis" and some have a plane silver cap. Looking at the cogs, I suspect that I have 6 spools manufactured by 4 different companies. I suspect my reel is one of the newer Made in England reels and that the spools are off all different eras (one has a thick cotton bag, no string, one has a felt bag with a string and two have nylon bags with strings). I guess a second question is, has anyone modified the older spools to work better with the newer reel? The spools work out of the box but aren't as smooth and have more resistance. My guess would be to flatten the teeth a bit and add a bevel. Thanks. Last Edited By: Jim Lowe 05/28/2009 22:07. Edited 3 times.
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turtledoc		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2658 05/28/2009 23:06 Moderator	Jim - IMHO these Battenkills are a very fine reel and are hands down one of the best value fly reels ever made....... I've never heard of spools fitting differently, but I do know that the plane silver spool release was from the late 80s (my very first fly reel was a late 80s Battenkill 5/6 Disc that I still own and will never part with). I know the black plastic cover dates as early as the late 1990s. I suspect you are correct that you have diferent vintages.....if you post photos there may be enough guys that still have these from the 80s and never that they bought new and can nail down the correct frame and spool designs for you.... Mark B Something to consider: Be willing to share photos, information and the knowledge you have about your collection with anyone that has an interest in learning...........also share your knowledge to answer questions that others may have about items in their collections.........doing this will make you feel good and benefits this community ..................after all, what good is having knowledge that isn't shared. MEB
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Jim Lowe		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 548 05/29/2009 19:08	Hi Mark, Thanks. Here are some pics: The reel: The Original Spool: One of the other spools: The different bags. I was mistaken, the bags I said were nylon are actually heavy cotton. So 3 bags are heavy cotton and one is felt. I suspect all the bags are original to the spool except the 3rd bag which came directly from Orvis and looks to have their current logo. First bag is heavy cotton, second bag is felt, others are heavy cotton.
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Slate Drake 9	One of my favorite reels	#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 92 06/02/2009 19:23	From the looks of it you have one of the last click and pawl Battenkills made in the late 90's/very early 2000's (the logo on the back of the reel gives it away). Prior to that, they had "foil" stickers on them in place of the logo on yours. I have several from the 80's, possibly a little earlier. All of mine have spools that interchange without any issues, but all of them have the metal latch cover. I've never tried a newer one with the plastic cover, which are still made for the disc version. I also never knowingly tried a spool from a disc reel, but assumed that they were the same as the click and pawl version, but this may explain the difference in teeth on the gear. The bag with the current Orvis logo is what was being used for the newer spools around the period of your reel and may still be used by them today for spools for the disc reels. Fishing with bait is like swearing in church.
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Jim Lowe		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 549 06/03/2009 09:59	Thanks. The disc spools are different but it helps to be able to date the reel. Thanks again.
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Rockthief		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 352 06/03/2009 12:39	those appear to have been made by BFR (British Fly Reels)
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