Hi all. I have been emailing back and forth with someone who bought the remaining Ryall stock (parts and reels) after the namesake passed away. In the course of emailing he shared a ton of history with me that I thought the folks on this board might appreciate. I was given approval to share. First the J Ryall Obit:
IN MEMORIUM - JIM RYALL
RYALL, James Joseph was born to Alan and Avis Ryall on April 2nd, 1934 in San Mateo, California, and died April 4, 2015 at age 81. Jim grew up during the Great Depression and Second World War, and learned to work hard and survive in tough times. After graduation from San Mateo High School, he and Barbara Tadson married to begin a life together that would span nearly 62 years. In 1954-56 he served in the US Army in Germany, where he was a sharpshooter. Jim was also trained in espionage, corresponding through coded letters. Upon his return to the US he held a number of jobs before settling into what would become a lifelong career making things from metal as a machinist. He started the trade at Litton Industries and eventually ran his own shop, J Ryall Machine Works. Jim was a doer, fearless to try almost anything, and had many interests. Among them were hunting and fishing, cats, motocross, boating, go cart racing, singing and songwriting, poetry, story telling, woodworking, new gadgets, Native American culture, collecting, backpacking, wheeling and dealing, photography, hot cars and motorcycles, vegetable gardening, model making, and inventing. He was always thinking about better ways to accomplish something and would create tools and inventions toward that end. Among them: perpetual motion machine (unfortunately unsuccessful), portable barbeque grill, tick removal kit, home meat smoker, and gas-powered pogo stick. His best known invention is the patented J Ryall fly reel, which is highly regarded by avid fly fishermen the world over. A jewel-encrusted version of the reel now resides in the Smithsonian collection.
Info on Teton vs Ryall:
Jim Ryall was an interesting person (passed away April 2015). He was a self educated expert machinist who manufactured the highest quality metal parts/boxes,etc for military fighter jets, the Apollo space program, etc from his machine shop in the San Carlos area from about 1960 until he retired in 1998.
His hobby/ outdoor sport of choice is fly fishing, and since he already had the machine shop in place, he decided to develop a new product line when the military/ NASA demand was shrinking in late 1980’s. He would make precision machined fly fishing reels from blocks of T6061 aircraft quality aluminum, but with dramatic improvements in the drag systems of previous reels which used a click & pawl mechanism used by Orvis and others.
His concepts used center line axis drag mechanisms (in the spindle and bushing parts of the reel, closer to the axis of rotation). He developed two different kinds, both of which set the standard for how almost all fly fishing reels are still made today. Also, his knowledge of military specs for quality machining requirements with tight tolerances, as well as type 3 hard anodized coatings gave him a decided advantage in making reels.
His first designs used a mechanism where a drag knob on the cage turned and slowly pulled the spool and center post into a plate under the bushing which rotated around the center spindle, thereby increasing the friction when line goes out which would tire out a fish making a run and pulling line out of the spool. He hired another machinist Wes (last name TBD) to help make these reels, but from day one they had an adversarial relationship, constantly debating the evolution of these reels, and so Jim fired Wes. Wes in turn stole this drag mechanism design and started his own company called Teton fly fishing reels. There were some lawsuits which only benefited some lawyers, but when the Teton lawyer quit the case, the lawsuits stopped and Jim figured he had won the battle. Today, these reels with this drag mechanism are seen both in Ryall Jr and in Teton #2,4,6, as well as many others. Okay for small reels, but when they get bigger (4 inches) the spool tends to wobble, a very undesirable characteristic.
There is also a ton more info here:
http://troutmemories.webmate.me/Site/J. ... STORY.html