FOREST AND STREAM 
27 
Where Lake and Mountain Meet. 
min Meek went to Louisville, selling out his shop 
to Milam. That was in 1883. 
“Now how about yourself, Mr. Sage?” we ask- 
' ed. “You are leaving yourself and your reel out.” 
The old gentleman smiled. “Well,” said he, 
“you can see my reel for yourself. As for my¬ 
self, I was apprenticed as a gunmaker and mak¬ 
er of fine mathematical instruments. I work¬ 
ed at such work as this at Frankfort until in the 
’50’s. Then I went into the gas and water works, 
and did rough work, like gas-fitting, from 1853 
to 1865. Then I went to Paris, and with Mr. 
Jeffrey, whom you know, built the gas works 
there. I went back to Frankfort then, and work¬ 
ed as United States gauger. You see I have led 
a varied life. It was 1848 when I made my first 
reel. I was making some of the old Morse tele¬ 
graph instruments then, and I used my tools on 
the reel work. In 1883 I went regularly into 
reel-making, and you can see some of the reels 
I have made here. I followed the old Hardman 
type in general form. Some of my old reels are 
in Frankfort now, and they will run, sir—they 
will run!” 
M “How about putting jewels in a reel, Mr. 
Sage?” 
“Well, jewel points are no hurt to a reel, but 
they are not the benefit that it is commonly 
thought they are. Most people don’t know how 
these reels are made, and think the full bearing 
is jewelled, or that the spindle of the reel works 
on jewels. That is not the case. You see this 
little plug, that screws in. Its tip just rests 
against the point of the spindle. There is very 
little friction at the end of the spindle; that 
comes mainly on the sides, where the spindle 
rests in its bearings. Now, the jewel is put right 
in the end of this little plug. All it can ease is 
the endrfriction, and that is not so very great a 
saving.” 
“What is it, then, that makes the best reels 
run so smoothly?” 
“Nothing but the perfect workmanship, and the 
perfect material. The steel used is of the best 
and finest tempered. Of course you know the 
steel spindle works in a brass box. One hard 
and one soft metal together is the rule in ma¬ 
chinery, you know. They will wear longer to¬ 
gether than two hard or two soft metals.” 
I asked Mr. Sage about the advisability of 
using oil -on the bearings of a reel, having in 
mind a friend who has bored a hole in the end 
plate of his reel, and carries a little oil can in 
his kit- “That is all nonsense,” said he, bluntly; 
“you should never use oil on a fine reel, or not 
oftener than once a year. A reel that heats and 
sticks from a day’s use, no matter how hard, is 
simply a badly made reel. The perfect reel has 
no provision made for oiling without taking the 
reel apart, nor should it have. It is true you oil 
a threshing machine, but you don't oil a watch 
very often. Well, you should compare a good 
reel to a watch, and not to a threshing machine.” 
“That’s so,” said one of my companions. “I 
oiled my reel once, and it wouldn t run at all. It 
clogged right up.” 
“Exactly, so would a watch or a clock. Oil 
should be used on a reel only with the greatest 
care, and very rarely.” 
I had noticed also that the balance-handled 
reel, so universally popular in the North, was 
little seen in the stocks of reels I examined in 
the South, and that there seemed a prejudice 
against it among Southern anglers. I asked Mr. 
Sage about this. 
“Well, I suppose that is largely a matter of 
fashion,” said he. “Our anglers think a single- 
crank reel looks less awkward. It doesn’t make 
much difference in the running of a reel. When 
I cast with a reel, I turn the handle upward with 
a turn of the wrist toward the end of the cast. 
The plates thus lie parallel to the earth, and 
the gravity of the handle doesn’t cut so much 
figure, so that the reel runs easier that way.” 
I think that most anglers who have used the 
balance-handled reel will prefer it to the single¬ 
crank, however; while as to the side turn of the 
reel in the cast, that is beyond the amateur. He 
will have quite enough to do with his thumb, 
without watching his wrist. 
