Kenny Kendall
Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:21 pm
old Kenny kendall had a lot of reels made between the late 30's to the 70's ,many different models from vintage style aerials (much to allcocks distain) through too Stanton styled reels in the 70's ,Kenny being a champion angler was a great business man ,never made a original reel but took other peoples designs / style and made copys with subtle differences ,the original pin pirate (something the Chinese are great at now) .with there being several models with little identification (theres a common style of just looking enough like the originals ,but legally different) they all have the look of the originals .well made ,well the early ones was made by Arthur Crompton a skilled machinist .
old kenny the buisness mind ,always knew what people wanted rather than buy in from someone else just had his own versions made ,He reputedly got into trouble with alcocks by the end of the second world war ,as at the late 30's we was looking at going to war ,allcocks ,youngs ,hardys etc all turned to war work ,which left a gap in the market as the supply of reels slowed down too a trickle as wor work took priority over reelmaking
this gave rise too a lot of smaller company's /retailers starting to make reels of their own ,like W&R products who pre war made boat parts ,then when they moved to the new workshop early in the war ,they was asked if they could make a reels to sell trough local shops etc .likewise Kenny kendall had shops in leeds etc and was finding it difficult too find a steady supplies of reels.So decided to have them made for his shops
Now not being a engineer didn't have the Mechnical skills to design one from scratch ,but he did know a man who could make one from examples ,so took some allcocks aerial to his frien Arthur Crompton and after a little measureing etc the first reels was on their way ,people wanted aerials ,they didn't want to wait till allcocks (youngs) could make them .and the first Kenny kendall reels was born.
pretty close too a 7950-T9 six spoked aerial with V check spring and unless you know your allcocks ,you would be hard pressed too tell the difference ,thanks too the great skills of Arthur Crompton .there are subtle differences ,like the riveted line lays the allcocks uses open rivet headed lays ,the KK reels have stud rivets ,the allcocks has the xylonite or iverine handles ,the Kk reel has horn handles like some other allcocks aerials had .the compensating drags adjuster is a little chunkier than the usual thin allcocks version .the main difference being most allcocks had a logo or other inscribed markers ,but Kenny never has any markings ,no patent numbers ,no makers marks .
this would set the pattern for future reels ,no identifying marks (harder too trace back too the perpetrators ,pirates like to cover their tracks .when Kenny felt like a new reel or people had asked for a certain type he'd see what was around like that and get a copy made up .always having the resemblance of the original but just slightly different often taking features from different models or makers and altered the sizes etc.just enough to avoid trouble because by the end of the war ,reel production started to ramp up ,allcocks took Kenny to task over the similarity of his early reels to their models ,so he just made a few changes to the reels to say they're of that style but not carbon copy's .
some people collect stamps ,I collect pictures of centrepins and the info that comes with them ,sometimes you get lucky and a bit of historical info comes with the descriptions of auctioned reels ,and slowly build a picture of how things worked ,joining the dots etc .but you can never be 100% as theres no official records kept and so there are some reels (none aerials) that may be a little speculation with weather or not they're Kk reels ,but i'll be including them beause one day the connection will be confirmed ,I've only recently done this with one of the suspected reels .so you never know when confirmation will come .its been years in the collecting but i'll be adding all I've got on Kk reels with a few suprises thrown in .
old kenny the buisness mind ,always knew what people wanted rather than buy in from someone else just had his own versions made ,He reputedly got into trouble with alcocks by the end of the second world war ,as at the late 30's we was looking at going to war ,allcocks ,youngs ,hardys etc all turned to war work ,which left a gap in the market as the supply of reels slowed down too a trickle as wor work took priority over reelmaking
this gave rise too a lot of smaller company's /retailers starting to make reels of their own ,like W&R products who pre war made boat parts ,then when they moved to the new workshop early in the war ,they was asked if they could make a reels to sell trough local shops etc .likewise Kenny kendall had shops in leeds etc and was finding it difficult too find a steady supplies of reels.So decided to have them made for his shops
Now not being a engineer didn't have the Mechnical skills to design one from scratch ,but he did know a man who could make one from examples ,so took some allcocks aerial to his frien Arthur Crompton and after a little measureing etc the first reels was on their way ,people wanted aerials ,they didn't want to wait till allcocks (youngs) could make them .and the first Kenny kendall reels was born.
pretty close too a 7950-T9 six spoked aerial with V check spring and unless you know your allcocks ,you would be hard pressed too tell the difference ,thanks too the great skills of Arthur Crompton .there are subtle differences ,like the riveted line lays the allcocks uses open rivet headed lays ,the KK reels have stud rivets ,the allcocks has the xylonite or iverine handles ,the Kk reel has horn handles like some other allcocks aerials had .the compensating drags adjuster is a little chunkier than the usual thin allcocks version .the main difference being most allcocks had a logo or other inscribed markers ,but Kenny never has any markings ,no patent numbers ,no makers marks .
this would set the pattern for future reels ,no identifying marks (harder too trace back too the perpetrators ,pirates like to cover their tracks .when Kenny felt like a new reel or people had asked for a certain type he'd see what was around like that and get a copy made up .always having the resemblance of the original but just slightly different often taking features from different models or makers and altered the sizes etc.just enough to avoid trouble because by the end of the war ,reel production started to ramp up ,allcocks took Kenny to task over the similarity of his early reels to their models ,so he just made a few changes to the reels to say they're of that style but not carbon copy's .
some people collect stamps ,I collect pictures of centrepins and the info that comes with them ,sometimes you get lucky and a bit of historical info comes with the descriptions of auctioned reels ,and slowly build a picture of how things worked ,joining the dots etc .but you can never be 100% as theres no official records kept and so there are some reels (none aerials) that may be a little speculation with weather or not they're Kk reels ,but i'll be including them beause one day the connection will be confirmed ,I've only recently done this with one of the suspected reels .so you never know when confirmation will come .its been years in the collecting but i'll be adding all I've got on Kk reels with a few suprises thrown in .