Mitchell Reel Museum Discussion Group

Hello then good to hear from you again. The pictures that you want to upload here have to be no bigger than 700 by 700 pixels. There's a way to reformat them on computers but depends which one you have. Then at the bottom of the screen you will see choose file and click on that. You can only upload one picture at a time but can post several pictures on the same message. Good Luck.
Kim

Mates,

Per Dan's request, I am posting Dan's images he referred to at the start of this thread.

John

As one would expect, the information which Dan has provided fits very well with what is available in the UK.
The attached page from the 1951 J.B.Walker catalogue shows only LHW available at that time, and suggests that the Mitchell is a relatively new product.
The Carp Catchers Club rotary letter has been published in book form. The attached are extracts from letters from Ingham and Walker in February and May 1952. RHW is not yet available in the UK, but probably imminent.
Richard Walker was the leading UK angler of his generation and dominated the UK angling scene for over 30 years. He smashed the UK Carp record in September 1952 while using a claw-bail reel with a MK.4 Carp rod which he designed and hand-built himself. This capture really helped put Mitchell on the map over here.
I have seen a French catalogue from 1951 which tells us that RHW was in the course of preparation at that time.
I found a RHW reel without serial number. It had the usual features of an early reel : bulbous line guide, steel cover plate screws, flat bottomed spool, first type of baffle plate. This reel has been restored ready for use and converted to crosswind by its' new owner and can be seen in the Questions to MRM section under the topic "RHW Mitchell question".
I look forward with interest to further information on early reels and Garcia from Dan.
Rolands.

Hi Kim, I guess that is for the readers to search out and discover. I only presented what I found. Dan

Mates,
I'm 98% sure I once had a left-handed half bail, several years ago, but there's that 2% not sure.

Regards,
Ted Lanham

I never checked the pictures here when last posted. I have in a red box the "left handed half bail reel" with upside down writing in my basement. Just have to locate and post here. I remember it's used but still in nice shape. Rain in forecast so more time to locate...........
Kim

Here are two other pictures. Bottom of the box marked Fair Traded and serial number.
Kim

Question here. Should I have an aluminum spool holder or did plastic come out around then? The spool in the plastic container has the skinny looks like Roman numeral two.

OK, now onto the 2nd set of early Charles Garcia documents. I found these in an early Mitchell box-the blue one with the alligator hide-like covering. I think these were probably the earliest Charles Garcia instructions and parts and price lists that came with the reels. They are so old that they are coming apart at the seams where they were folded neatly in the box. It is a wonder they are still together. I am keeping them well protected in plastic protectors. On the backside of each document it appears to me, that the reel instructions and price lists were hand typed. That would have to be a very early effort on the part of Charles Garcia at the beginning. Notice on the first document that the form was preprinted with Charles Garcia as the importer. Also notice that the form was printed in France. Does this raise questions in your mind? The 2nd form is shown in a couple of Wallace's books, but this will be the first time the back side is shown-also typewritten. I am sure Charles Garcia also did that. OK you guys, digest and discuss or refute to your hearts content!! Dan. Hopefully, I can download these to this site. If not, John has offered to help.

Mates,

Per Dan's request, I am posting Dan's images he referred to above in this thread as his 2nd set of early Charles Garcia documents.

Below is part one.

John

J Fishkat,
Those are awesome documents that you posted for fishhawks, and big thanks for doing that.
Until now, I never realized that the early models had a half bail made of a stainless alloy.
I've been through several of the half bail reels with the boomerang a/r and many had lost all the chrome plating with just brass showing, so I had to check the one "2nd" model to see if there was any indication of pitting. Wow, it does look to be some kind of a stainless alloy.
All of the 3rd models I have are near mint, but still you can tell that they are plated.
Question 1: Are there any 3rd models with stainless bails, or did Mitchell drop them with the other changes made going from 2nd to 3rd?
Question 2: That one paper says that a manual pickup was an option, but has anyone seen a factory manual pickup.
Thanks John and fishawks again for these documents.

Regards,
Ted Lanham

Fascinating paperwork Dan and Fishkat.
I recently purchased a mint MK.2 reel from a French collector which came with the same owner's leaflet printed in French; photo attached. This leaflet has a reel bag in place of Garcia's details and it has no printing on the back.
The reel it came with is what I would class as a mid-period MK.2 in the early tall box with plain blue lid.
We can now be fairly sure that Garcia did start by offering the MK.2 reel.
I was looking through some boxes the other day and I noticed that none of the early boxes I have with Mitchell bottom right and a plain blue lid have the "Fair traded" stamp on the bottom. I have 3 "Alligator" boxes and 2 are stamped "FT".
Have any members seen the early plain blue box stamped "Fair traded" ?
Does anyone know for sure when boxes were first stamped? Mike diMattio suggests 1947, I think.
I'm surprised about the claw -bail being steel. I will check my reels later, but I am sure I have wooden handled reels with brass grinning through the thin chrome plating. I'm fairly sure I have a MK.1 with all of the chrome missing and what is underneath is brass.

Rolands.

Mates,
I'm afraid that this ads have more questions to our "lists of questions".
I checked the red knob cross-wind 3rd version I have, and it's pickup chrome is, almost, completely gone. Not stainless.
"Tailor-made reels", makes me scratch my head, but for a $274 reel (Inflation) you should get what you want. Even a roller winder.

Regards,
Ted Lanham

Mates,
I just noticed that in the 1st of Dan's second set of pics, that the says that the a/r knob is optional. The pic calls it an "optional pawl". Has anybody ever seen a "Mitchell" without a anti reverse?
Some of this makes me think that these guys went to the same advertising school as the people that, even today, have pictures of the really cheap new automobile on their full page ad, and when you go to buy it, they don't have one.

Regards,
Ted Lanham

Ted, I asked myself the same question about the optional pawl several years ago. As I studied into this question, I came to the conclusion that the word "optional" was referring to giving the fisherman the option of using an anti-reverse option, or not using it, when fishing. Also, and perhaps I am wrong, I have thought that anti-reverse features were not available until after WW II. I have studied other French made spinning reels and haven't discovered any, to this point, that had a AR feature, prior to WW II. But I am not closed minded on this topic.

Also, referring back to my first posting for the Spin Fisherman Issue, The date of publication was October 30, 1951.

Again, I want to thank John Fishkat for his help in posting these documents, otherwise they would never be available for everyone to see and consider. So I do not consider his help as a minor role. Thank you very much, John.

I have other equally interesting information or documents that I am thinking of posting in the future.
Dan

Hello Rolands and all the mates,
Garcia, I am novice on this subject: to know if a sticker was black on a white background or the reverse, I have no use for these debates.
The tropics are now all focused on Garcia and his documents, a tropic on a Mitchell from his country of origin encounters no reaction, the population of this site is of English-speaking and often off the Atlantic, so it's normal That we do not have the same references to Mitchell.
So I'll go to sleep waiting to find an "interesting" topic for all, I feel too isolated on this site.
Best regards to all
Christian