[kush]

I posted the photo on the 1929 Hardy Perfect a while ago and it inspired quite a thread. I was talking to my buddy from Campbell River today and got a little more info.

Andre, you were right this is a little older than 1929, but still in the early to mid '20s. You were having some issues identifying it for good reason I might add! It is very rare, as it is a "one-off" that was made for the Ivor Johnston Sporting Goods Company in Boston Ma. and it has an aluminum reel foot rather than the standard brass one. On the photo the fly covers it - unfortunately.

 

[andre]

Kush, Too cool, it so cool your buddy uses that reel. I would seriously get a "true" value. I would had to have something that was truely rare and slip on the wrong stone (something greasy) and throw my hand down to break my fall. I'm not saying don't use the reel, I'm saying break your arm! Anyway it might have an insurance value.

LOVE IT!

 

[marketic]

"TRANSITIONAL" ALLOY PERFECT

hello, Gents

The picture of the reel you have attached appears to be what is called a Hardy "Transitional" Perfect. I have a similar reel (without the circular logo) but the similarity of our reels (and the clue as to what they are) is the smooth alloy foot and the white ivorine "fat" handle.

With some research the best carbon dating I could come with for my particular reel was 1917 - 1922 and I suspect your friend's reel falls into that same period.

Hardy had the sand-casting technology for alloy prior to that time (witness the reel cages and spools of the Brass Faced Perfects being manufactured out of alloy back in 1898 - 1910).

What Hardy did not have was the confidence of the codgers using those old salmon reels on a day-to-day basis on the Scottish and British rivers. For those guys, it had to be brass and heavy to be a true salmon reel or they wanted no part of it. So Hardy's management came to realize that they had to "wean" these traditionalists off their brass reels bit by bit. That was part of the genealogy of the Brass Faced Perfets.

The foot and the winding plates were the last parts of those big brass salmon reels to go over to 100% alloy and if I'm not mistaken, the resulting "Transistional" Perfect is what we both have.

It was during that same period of time that the newer more modern MKII checks started to replace the older "C" springs and pawls-hung-on-a-bridge that were the guts and glory of those marvelous Brass Faced Perfects.

That's a nice reel: don't file that foot if it's still intact -- the foot is the coolest part of these pieces- the foot on mine is 3 1/2" long and the desire to use my particular reel for active day-to-day fishing was one of the main reasons I first started building my own rods with the modified Struble reel seats 10 years ago.