The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I was lucky enough to pick up this rarish Silex Major recently. Unfortunately it is missing its regulator screw and the foot is broken.
If anyone has a suitable screw or a 4" brass ribbed Hardy foot I would be grateful to hear from them. Alternatively does anyone know a good source of this type of thing?

I would have thought Garry Mills would be able to make the parts you need. He made some parts for a old Young's reel I have and he has ribbed feet on some of his new reels. I use to have a Dingley reel similar to yours and it also had had its foot shortened in the same way as yours something to do with the change in the style of reel fittings on rods of the time.

Some of those parts turn up on eBay, also reels for spares turn up

After looking at the pictures, I would say that the brass reel seat had been deliberately shortened, rather than broken, probably to suit a particular rod. However, because the opposite half is complete, it would be a fairly straightforward matter to duplicate it exactly.

Regarding the missing part, unless you can source an original, you would need either a pattern or something similar to copy.

With regards,

wm+

Drastic bit of shortening. There is only 8mm left on the short end so not such a secure fit I imagine especially given a 4.25 wide drum reel would be likely to be subjected to some heavy work. Possibly an attempted salvage job on the broken foot.

Silexman wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2019 8:03 pm Drastic bit of shortening. There is only 8mm left on the short end so not such a secure fit I imagine especially given a 4.25 wide drum reel would be likely to be subjected to some heavy work. Possibly an attempted salvage job on the broken foot.

Here's the Dingley I had.

Did you get the reel fixed? Or is it for sale? I enjoy trying to revive broken Silex reels.

I still have it and its a project for the future. I sourced a replacement foot and screws. Exactly the same size etc. Only problem is that the screw holes are the opposite way round. No sign of a regulator screw yet but still looking.

The 0 to 7 ratcheted adjuster seen in your first and third photos is unusual and I've never seen it in Mr Drewett's tome on Hardy reels. I believe something similar was on the J.J.Hardy Silex IIRC.

There is no mention of it in The Drewett book but Graham Turner in His "Ultimate Collector's Guide" does include details of a Silex No2 variant, first model Super Silex (1928) and the Silex Major Variant second version which all have the same regulator. He says that these reels are "ultra rare".