Fishing reels are simple machines that help the angler retrieve line, store it, and release it smoothly during a cast. Anyone with even minimal mechanical abilities can produce a reel that will fulfill at least the first two of those functions. More capable machinists can add multiplying gears, drags, level winds, and clutches to their reels. The earliest identifiable reels made in the U.S. were made by silversmith George Snyder and his sons, not as products of their business, but as gifts for their friends. Their “home-made” reels ultimately gave rise to the Kentucky reel industry.
Untold thousands of fishermen since the Snyders have made their own reels in shops, basements, garages, and barns, usually without any intention of marketing their creations. Just as an old, used reel conjures up visions of the fish that previous owners may have caught with it, a home-made reel provides us with an additional peek into the maker’s mind. Close inspection of home-made reels allows us to see how the maker coped with design problems, tried to match or improve commercially available contemporary reels, or even to devise innovative mechanisms, all within the limits of the materials available and his own mechanical abilities.
This display includes a few of my favorite home-made or home-customized reels that I’ve been fortunate enough to find during three decades of collecting.
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