If you're a collector who
prefers to leave his reels in "as found" condition, don't bother reading the
rest of this section. On the other hand, if you're interested in removing the grease that
has hardened for decades or in seeing the metal under the verdigris, perhaps you can find
a few tips here.
Before cleaning an old reel, one must determine the materials of
construction and decide how they can be shown to best advantage. For example, old nickel
silver can tarnish to a dark brown, making it indistinguishable from brass. Most
collectors would prefer to remove such a patina, while many collectors prefer to leave the
patina on brass. Nickel-plated reels almost always look better after cleaning, unless the
plating is badly pitted. Hard rubber presents its own problems. The degree of cleaning and
polishing is a matter of taste, but the processes should be carried out to ensure that the
character of the reel is not destroyed. Whatever you do, don't emulate the dealers who use
sandpaper or steel wool to uncover a name stamped on a headcap.
The following types of materials require special care and should not
be subjected to some of the cleaning solvents mentioned below:
ivory or bone
wood, painted wood
some later plastics
aluminum
some painted metal surfaces
blued metals
Hard rubber and Bakelite should hold up well in the solvents, but if
they are cracked, they should not be sonicated.
My favorite method of cleaning an old reel begins with its complete
disassembly. But I can not overstress the importance of using tools that do not mar the
reel itself, especially when it comes to screwdrivers. Always be sure that the
screwdriver blade fits the screw slot as closely as possible. If a screw won't turn,
apply penetrating oil according to directions and try again. Don't break screwheads off;
if you can't disassemble without endangering the screws or pillars, don't disassemble.
Keep track of where each part fits; screws and other parts of old reels often are not
interchangeable.
Once the reel is disassembled as far as possible, I prefer to clean
the parts in a sonic bath. To remove verdigris, the green deposit often found on
salt-water reels, especially on spools, sonicate (or soak) in vinegar until the powder is
soft enough to rub off with a cloth. Usually,the verdigris forms within chips in the
nickel plating over brass parts. If the reel contains thick deposits of old grease,
hardened or not, a short sonication (or soaking) in mineral spirits should remove most of
it. The final cleaning consists of sonication in a non-ammoniated watch-cleaning solution
followed by a rinse with a non-ammoniated rinsing solution.
If you wish to polish the reel, polish the parts before they are
reassembled. Use a fine polish and do it by hand, not with a buffing wheel. Most
collectors immediately distrust a gleaming old reel, as they wonder what other
"improvements" might have been made to it. Check stampings in the metal for
sharp edges; rounded edges on a shiny reel suggest that signs of wear may have been
masked.
These are photographs of the same German silver/hard rubber reel shown before (left) and after cleaning, using the process described below. The photograph on the left is used with the kind permission of South Bay Auctions, Inc.
1. Disassemble reel completely and soak parts in mineral spirits for 30 min. to remove grease.
2. Soak or sonicate parts (as needed) in vinegar to remove verdigris, found mostly on the foot and spool.
3. Rinse with water, then sonicate parts for 30 min. in non-ammoniated watch-cleaning solution, followed by a brief sonication in the appropriate non-ammoniated rinse.
4. Rinse with water and dry parts.
5. Using a fine polish, such as Wenol, lightly polish the metal parts by hand.
6. Apply a few drops of silicone reel oil to the hard rubber parts, spread by hand, and allow to soak into the rubber for an hour or two. The oil tends to darken the rubber. Polishing the hard rubber may obliterate any light stampings or will make deeper stampings less "crisp." Wipe off the excess oil with a soft cloth.
7. Apply silicone grease or oil to the moving parts as needed and reassemble the reel.
Some collectors advise against cleaning older reels, especially if the "patina" might be removed. I've always felt that most of the "patina" on tools like fishing reels usually consists mostly of dirt and grease, rather than an oxidation product of the metal. Therefore, I prefer cleaning the reels and letting a new patina "grow" from scratch.
The two reels shown below are very similar British single-action click reels probably well over 150 years old. The reel on the left is shown just after it was cleaned, but not polished, by the method described above. The reel on the right looked just as bright and shiny after it was cleaned several years ago. However, it has developed a nice, even, "natural" patina by sitting on a display shelf since then. A deep patina is not necessarily indicative of great age.
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