Re: List of Ambidex Reel Models
Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 2:58 pm
Hello St Nobby. Yes been on here a bit, but mostly 'lurking' to get a flavour of the site.
As to your observation with regard to the numbers, for what are on the face of it, different handles being the same?
Well yes, it is not laziness by J W Young but merely the casting number of the handle type. They are the same casting if you look really carefully but with different 'folding' and 'holding' arrangements made from different chrome parts.
Young's were always fiddling with their 'basic' designs, usually to cut costs/corners to remain competitive with their rivals, like Mitchell. The problem with the Ambidex reel is that the design was reasonably complex, take a look inside the casing to ascertain this, and as a consequence all had to be 'hand finished', very often at 'Different Locations', just to compound the indentification troubles. Hence, in part, the seeming infinite variety of the 'standard' model....if such a thing exists?
Perhaps it might be better to say the most common model and leave it at that?
This is possibly contentious but I am assured by some of the reasonably 'compis mentis' remaining Tea Club participants that the different locations for manufacture and finishing of the Ambidex took place at sites, not necessarily in Redditch. This was especially the case with large orders which were 'farmed out' to other manufacturers on a 'quid pro quo' basis. I know for a fact, as I have viewed the invoices, confirmed by anecdotal evidence from the Tea Club, that Reuben Heaton did a lot of work on this basis with All of the Redditch Tackle Companies; not just J W Young!
The problem I seem to have is that the more I find out about the British Tackle Trade, the more I'm beginning to realise just how interconnected they all were and what a 'close knit' community they formed. The more I think about it, the more confusing it all seems. However, I believe it was because of this inter-connectivity between seemingly separate entities that caused the collapse of the British Tackle Industry as a whole!
My evidence for this is only circumstantial and anecdotal, with no hard evidence, as such, but consider this, why did such a seemingly strong, established industry, made up of many different companies, all seem to collapse within a very short time-scale?
All of them had problems or went out of business around 1969/70. World-Wide recession played its part, of that there is no doubt. Cheap Far Eastern Imports also contributed, again no doubt there. But the fact remains they all seemed to collapse in a very short period of time, never to recover. Too reliant on each other?
It makes you think though, doesn't it?
I hope this will stir up some interest and perhaps shed some light on a very interesting conundrum....who knows we might even get to the truth!
Glad to have been of some help to you Old Cod. However, it is Tea time now so I'm off for a bit of cake!
Mole Power!!!
As to your observation with regard to the numbers, for what are on the face of it, different handles being the same?
Well yes, it is not laziness by J W Young but merely the casting number of the handle type. They are the same casting if you look really carefully but with different 'folding' and 'holding' arrangements made from different chrome parts.
Young's were always fiddling with their 'basic' designs, usually to cut costs/corners to remain competitive with their rivals, like Mitchell. The problem with the Ambidex reel is that the design was reasonably complex, take a look inside the casing to ascertain this, and as a consequence all had to be 'hand finished', very often at 'Different Locations', just to compound the indentification troubles. Hence, in part, the seeming infinite variety of the 'standard' model....if such a thing exists?
Perhaps it might be better to say the most common model and leave it at that?
This is possibly contentious but I am assured by some of the reasonably 'compis mentis' remaining Tea Club participants that the different locations for manufacture and finishing of the Ambidex took place at sites, not necessarily in Redditch. This was especially the case with large orders which were 'farmed out' to other manufacturers on a 'quid pro quo' basis. I know for a fact, as I have viewed the invoices, confirmed by anecdotal evidence from the Tea Club, that Reuben Heaton did a lot of work on this basis with All of the Redditch Tackle Companies; not just J W Young!
The problem I seem to have is that the more I find out about the British Tackle Trade, the more I'm beginning to realise just how interconnected they all were and what a 'close knit' community they formed. The more I think about it, the more confusing it all seems. However, I believe it was because of this inter-connectivity between seemingly separate entities that caused the collapse of the British Tackle Industry as a whole!
My evidence for this is only circumstantial and anecdotal, with no hard evidence, as such, but consider this, why did such a seemingly strong, established industry, made up of many different companies, all seem to collapse within a very short time-scale?
All of them had problems or went out of business around 1969/70. World-Wide recession played its part, of that there is no doubt. Cheap Far Eastern Imports also contributed, again no doubt there. But the fact remains they all seemed to collapse in a very short period of time, never to recover. Too reliant on each other?
It makes you think though, doesn't it?
I hope this will stir up some interest and perhaps shed some light on a very interesting conundrum....who knows we might even get to the truth!
Glad to have been of some help to you Old Cod. However, it is Tea time now so I'm off for a bit of cake!
Mole Power!!!